Variety is the spice of life, and there’s significant variety on shop shelves. Paint manufacturers make paint in every shade of every colour, personal care companies make products in a range of scents, and food companies expand their product range with different flavours.
Being able to create variety is important. In the soft drinks industry there’s a huge range of flavour, from soursop (guanabana) juice to Candy Can drinks (in Birthday Cake, Rocket Ice Lolly, Marshmallow, and Bubblegum flavour) to Peanut Punch (a milk-based peanut flavour drink) and Basil Seed drinks.
There’s so much variety on shop shelves and companies make huge amounts of product to keep up with the demand for different flavours and colours and scents.
Companies that make a large range of products would benefit significantly from having an HPS Automatrix as part of their process.
What Is the HPS Automatrix?
The HPS Automatrix is an automatic product distribution system that allows for the rapid, safe and hygienic movement of product from multiple sources to multiple destinations. It is the most advanced, efficient, and effective product available for liquid transfer.
The Automatrix is a fully automatic piggable valve manifold that is specifically designed for both industrial and hygienic (sanitary) processes. It enables full path selection and pigging flexibility from any product source to any destination, while automating source and destination selection.
There are many benefits to having an Automatrix included in your process. These include:
- Faster changeovers and selection times,
- Lower contamination and cross-contamination risks,
- Improved safety through the removal of hoses, and
- A reduction in the number of dedicated lines.
The HPS Automatrix cuts out almost all manual selection procedures using specialised software. As well as increasing productivity and efficiency, the HPS piggable Automatrix also minimises the chances of connection errors through human fault.
Unlike other liquid transfer matrices or automated valve manifolds, the HPS piggable Automatrix uses specialist, close fitting valve configurations with minimal dead-space or pockets. So, when pigs travel through it, they recover just about all of the product. This is much more efficient than other valve manifold systems, which have internal dead space and pockets which fill with product and can’t be pigged.
Each HPS system is uniquely designed around your specific requirements. So, there are various options. The piggable Automatrix is available in many different sizes and different mounting formats. These include horizontal, vertical, portable or skid configurations.
When supplied as a portable ‘skid’, all wiring pneumatics & I/O marshalling is provided complete or as clip-on modules. Whatever mounting format you choose, we offer a wide range of tube diameters, different networking options, and single or double-seat valve technology.
When installed horizontally, an HPS piggable Automatrix can accommodate significant expansion in sources and destinations to meet any future needs. When designed as a vertical space-saving module, only the height restricts more lines being added. The modular design enables virtually limitless future growth in both source and destination lines.
The HPS Automatrix can also be designed to use the most suitable pigging system for your product. We know how important quality is when processing liquids, so being able to choose the pigging system best suited to your product, be it soda or paint, will give you peace of mind. Here’s more useful information on choosing a pigging system.
Pigging With An HPS Automatrix
Not only does the HPS Automatrix save you space, because it’s piggable from start to finish it can also save you product. Saving product means you can save money, water and CIP chemicals. You’ll also be able to reduce how much money you need to spend on waste transport, treatment and disposal.
Pigging works by inserting a projectile (the ‘pig’) slightly larger than the internal diameter of the pipe into the line and propelling it through the line. When pigging the Automatrix either gas or water will be used as the propellant.
The pig will push the remaining product through the line until it reaches its destination, where it can then be sent on to the next step in processing following usual procedures.
HPS pipeline pigs have a unique design that enables a recovery rate of up to 99.5% of product from full pipelines – the specific nature of the product will effect the exact amount of product recovered, but it will still be a significant figure. Our engineers will be able to give you a good idea of how much product you will be able to recover using HPS pigging systems.
Pigging sequences on the Automatrix can run simultaneously for each line.
There are many more benefits of pigging with HPS, all of which contribute to financial growth and environmental sustainability.
Find Out More
Want to know more about the HPS piggable Automatrix? Talk to one of our process system experts to discover how you can increase the efficiency of your liquid transfers.