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Brewing, Drink and Dairy Processing News
News Release from: FMA Process Engineering | Subject: Dairy Farmers projects
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 31 March 2008
Bulk milk storage projects for major UK
dairy
Leading project management, process control and integration specialists, FMA have completed two major finished milk bulk storage projects at the Dairy Farmers of Britain Blaydon site near Newcastle
Leading project management, process control and solutions integration specialists, FMA Process Engineering, of Lichfield, UK, have completed two major finished milk bulk storage projects at Dairy Farmers of Britain's Blaydon site near Newcastle These complete turnkey projects valued at circa GBP850,000, involved the process design, installation and integration of four high-level milk silos in a particularly tight location at the Blaydon site and also enabled space to be created for two additional finished milk silos in the future
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 15 Oct 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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With supermarket contracts requiring the Blaydon site to be able to provide extra capacity and flexibility, FMA also had to fast-track all stages to ensure that the new finished milk silos were on-line within the required tight timescales.
Rapidly becoming recognised as a premier brand in its own right - as well as for an increasing range of 'supermarket label' dairy products - the Dairy Farmers co-operative required significantly increased finished milk storage capacity at Blaydon in order to cope with growing product volumes and to enable total segregation/traceability of individual supermarket ranges.
In projects that also assisted the Blaydon dairy in developing a long-term site strategy, FMA supplemented the four 22.5kL horizontal finished milk tanks already in place, firstly with two new 120kL milk silos plus the infrastructure to accommodate four additional silos when required.
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The second project involved the installation of a second pair of 120kL silos along with increased routing flexibility.
As part of their involvement, FMA had to first establish a way of providing increased storage capacity at the Blaydon site both physically (because of space restrictions) and operationally (as the process would involve sourcing milk from two existing pasteurisers plus routing the new silos to the filling lines without interrupting the dairy 24/7 operation).
To compensate for the compact footprint of the site, a plan was formulated to install the new silos at high level.
Operating to a totally transparent open-book approach, in a role that would involve process design, extensive systems upgrades and management of the sub-contractor base, FMA worked closely with the Dairy Farmers nominated steelwork manufacturer regarding the construction of a structure capable of holding the first two designated 120kL milk silos plus an additional two silos when required, resulting in storage of an extra 480kL of finished milk in total.
Space would be available for two further silos as part of a longer term site development.
Another aspect of the FMA responsibility involved extending the legacy control system in place at Blaydon to replicate the control philosophy used across the existing finished milk tanks then apply it to the new silos.
This was done in such a way as to ensure the easy integration of the future silos, but in the knowledge of the longer term plan to replace the obsolete control system.
Commenting on the successful completion of the contracts, FMA Managing Director, Terry Clough, said: "It was a pleasure to work with Dairy Farmers of Britain on what was an extremely challenging yet highly rewarding project.
As you can imagine, the compact nature of the site demanded imaginative thinking, especially regarding the placing and commissioning of the new silos.
At the same time" he continued, "with such short project windows, coupled to the added pressure of not impacting on current milk production, required meticulous planning, plus a particularly understanding client team.
By working hand-in-hand with Dairy Farmers, we were also able to vastly accelerate the project stages - a factor that clearly assisted us in completing this project within time.
Indeed, it would be fair to say that the whole task was a testimony to good collaborative working, good planning and meticulously organised product trials".
In another contract for Dairy Farmers of Britain, FMA has assisted the cooperative in extending the finished milk storage capacity at its Fole dairy in Uttoxeter.
This particular application involved the integration of two additional low-level 138kL finished milk silos, incorporation of the necessary pumping technologies, and the provision of new state-of-the-art Rockwell PLCs for control of routing and the existing CIP system.
By installing the new PLCs, a Rockwell Panel View HMI and a GE Fanuc iFix SCADA system, FMA also enabled plant management and operatives to view production and CIP data in real time, as well as storing historical data for validation and tracking purposes.
FMA Process Engineering offers considerable experience in liquid processing, with a particular focus in the dairy sector.
Established in 1981, the integration specialists have successfully undertaken numerous projects in the brewery, soft drinks, dairy and food manufacturing industries both at home and overseas.
As an ISO9001 accredited business and holders of the TickIT software and application-based standard, FMA are acutely aware of the need for quality in all aspects of system design and see their own internal standards and procedures covering the design, implementation, validation and testing of the systems they supply as a key differentiator for them as system integrators in the food and beverage market place.
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