Alfa Laval SRU Pump – a proven curd transfer solution

Founded in 1938, Agropur Cooperative is a leader in the North American dairy industry, with sales of 3.4 billion dollars. Their Little Chute, Wisconsin facility produces award winning cheese and whey products – drawing from a rich Wisconsin cheese making tradition. They consider the curd transfer pump a critical cheese making step – which must move the curd gently in order to minimize the cheese fines or waste created during vat transfer.

To summarize the Agropur cheese making process, they transfer cheese curd from processing vats to drain tables – where the curd is then made into mozzarella cheese.

Putting Alfa Laval SRU Pump to the test

The customer was interested in a new pump because their existing PR pump is no longer manufactured. Prior to selecting a new curd transfer pump, Agropur established stringent testing criteria. Agropur measured cheese fines before the inlet of the existing PR300 pump as well as three periodic intervals at the tables. The fines levels measured at the three periodic test points were then averaged and compared to the fines content before the pump.

An Alfa Laval SRU6-WLD with Bi-Lobe, no galling rotors was set up in the exact same testing criteria. The pump was installed with a higher speed motor to provide a faster flow, but it was also controlled via a variable frequency drive to provide the same flow rate as the PR300. After the Alfa Laval SRU6 was installed, the pump ran for three weeks and the above testing was repeated.

The results

The Alfa Laval SRU6 test results were overwhelmingly successful – proven by a significant, 20% reduction in curd fine levels. The Alfa Laval SRU is also a CIP pump, which reduces overall cleaning time as well as potential pump damage which can occur during manual cleaning. The Alfa Laval SRU6-WLD pump also runs at higher flow rates while reducing fines levels. These higher flow rates also result in quicker tank turnover – allowing for the production of more vats of cheese.

After testing two additional competitors’ pumps, an Alfa Laval SRU6-WLD pump was purchased because it provided the lowest fines compared to all pumps tested. Please arm yourself with this information for any of your upcoming curd transfer pumping application quotes or requests. This information can also be used to proactively target the large installed population of PR300 pumps in the market. Contact your Alfa Laval District Sales Manager or any member of the Pump Team for questions or a quote.