About Us
Mission Statement
Hygienic Pigging Systems is an integrated design and manufacturing company specializing in the development, production, installation and commissioning of pipeline pigging systems. Incorporated in 1995, HPS quickly established itself a world leader in the provision of pigging solutions for liquid process companies.
Our mission is to build on our history of product excellence and technology innovation to fulfil market requirements, whilst maintaining the highest quality and product reliability to our world-wide clients.
Products & Services
HPS can provide from simple single line Pigging systems to multi-source, multi-destination systems.
Services that can be provided include consultation on system design, control panel manufacture, PLC & HMI programming, electrical & mechanical installation, commissioning/ training & servicing of systems.
HPS have successfully commissioned over 500 systems in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, India, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morroco, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, USA & Canada.
Clients currently using HPS Systems include Masterfoods, Nestle, Nestle Purina, Nestle Water, Kraft Foods, Castle Dairies, Ghirardelli, Garoto, Nacional de Chocolates, Haribo, Whittakers, Pataks Foods, S&A Foods, Conagra Foods, General Mills, McCormicks Foods, Rowse Honey, Greencore, Kerry Ingredients, Campbells Soup, McVities, Heinz, Westlers, AarhusKarlshams, Stalam, Coca Cola, Britvic Soft Drinks, Wild Flavours, Glenmorangie, SA Breweries, High Falls Breweries, Orlando Wines, Vin Pac, Hardys Wines, Fosters Wine Estates, Wolf Blass Wines, Yalumba Wines, Indevin Wines, Marlborough Bottling, Corby Bottlers, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, L'Oreal, Colgate Palmolive, Alberto Culver, Kao Brands, Johnson & Johnson, PZ Cussons, Sara Lee, Tri-Tec Labs, Zotos, Guest Supply, Thornton & Ross, Forest Labs, Meddimune, Croda Chemicals, Fuchs Lubricants, Coatex, Reckitt Benckiser, Eastman Kodak, Johnson Diversey, National Starch, Rockwood Pigments, Appleton Inc. & Benjamin Moore.
Pigging Benefits
Reduced Product Waste
The cost for removal or treatment of waste from plants has become a major expense to most liquid process companies. Additionally, increasing legislation and restrictions from new government environmental policies require additional resources and costs for companies to keep within guidelines. An effective tool towards reducing these costs whilst promoting carbon footprint reduction is to pig the product transfer pipelines, which significantly reduces waste and associated costs.
Increased Product Yield
Historically this has been the main reason why liquid process companies obtained a pigging system. When a batch of product has finished transfer from a holding tank along a pipe then into a filler, storage tank or tanker there is always product residue remaining that the pump cannot evacuate. Even gravity fed lines don't evacuate all of the product. Generally, more viscous products leave more residue behind. Introducing a pig into the line enables this residue to be pushed into the filler, storage tank, tanker or even the final package for product recovery. This recovered product is good product and can now be sold. This is obviously good for company profits, but it also increases the efficiency of that particular line.
Reduced Water Usage
The use of water is another area that governments are focusing on as a valuable resource that needs to be managed better, particularly in countries such as Australia that are experiencing exceptionally long periods without rain . Normally the first part of any CIP cycle is to flush out the product residue with water for a period of time before actually proceeding with the cleaning process. If the product has been evacuated with a pig then there is no requirement for a lengthy flush out. This could be reduced to a minimum, saving valuable time and money. Water is a resource that going forward will become very expensive for many liquid process companies.
Faster Product Change-Overs
When companies expand product ranges and product variations there is increasing pressure to accommodate this in previously dedicated pipelines. Each variation of product has the effect of reducing batch sizes and change over from one batch to another accounts for loses in product, increased use of water for flushouts and less productive man hours. Pigging speeds up product change-overs because it reduces the length of the wash. If there is only a slight change in product colour, flavour or perfume it may possible to follow on immediately with the next product after Pigging.
Quality Improvements
Many companies will attempt to chase product residue down the pipe with water or blow it with a gas medium. Each of these create other issues with products, which were offset any gains. Using water to chase the product creates a product/water interface and measuring by eye or by a sensing device can be unreliable and risky. Longer and larger diameter pipelines have greater interfaces to deal with.
Pigging the line after production removes this issue when a product transfer is complete. Also, water residue that remains after CIP or washout creates a product/water interface which means running off a great deal of valuable product before the quality is acceptable. Pigging the line after CIP or washout again removes this issue. It is possible to start up with good product immediately.
Product Separation
HPS Pigs can be used to separate one product from another, an example would be dark chocolate from milk chocolate. This is generally required where water can't come in contact with the product or product line. It is also required for extremely long pipelines that can carry more than one batch of product at a time. One example of this was an HPS installation for a large chocolate manufacturer in the UK. This client had a 5 inch diameter pipeline 500m long. HPS Pigs were used to separate dark & milk chocolate batches that are in transfer at the same time in one pipe.
Another exmple was an HPS Installation for a spring water company that periodically needed to hygienically clean a 6 inch diameter pipeline 1km long from Well to Tanker. Up to 7 HPS Pigs can be transited through this HDPE pipe at the same time with around 500 gallons of water or a cleaning chemical between each. The Pigs are pumped through the pipe and at stages are held in suspense to obtain necessary chemical contact times. This system design significantly reduced the volume and cost of chemicals normally required for a pipeline of this diameter & length.
Reduced Carbon Footprint
Liquid manufacturing companies across the world now see Carbon Footprint Reduction as a marketing tool as well as an ethical approach to business. Pigging will significantly reduce a companies direct and indirect Carbon Footprint. Directly -consider the power resources that can be saved by reducing cleaning times and associated waste. Indirectly - consider the reduction in numbers of tankers or trucks required for removal of waste or delivery of waste treatment chemicals, which will reduce road degradation, exhaust emissions and traffic congestion. Also consider the containers that waste treatment chemicals are delivered it, a factory has to make these and they have to either be re-collected or safely disposed of.
Increased Profits
If your plant has liquid product transfer pipelines, in most cases one or more of the above benefits will be applicable and serve to increase profits. Typically HPS systems pay back within one year and thereafter offer year on year profit increase. Where products have a high unit cost or there are frequent product changeovers or if the transfer lines are long, the increase in profits will be even more attractive.
