Coating & packing in prepared pet food production

Typically the final stages before packaging or sealing the product into a container involve adding any extra coatings, fat, flavouring or vitamins, and then measuring out the required quantities into each container. These added coatings can be either sprayed onto a conveyor or coated onto the products in a revolving drum: the rate of the added coating must be carefully synchronised with the flow rate of the product. Often the product will be held in a buffer tank and the required quantity dispensed from there. Dry foods are poured into pre-printed containers. Moist canned foods are vacuum sealed to reduce the oxygen content and prevent any spoilage of the fats in the food.

OPTIMASS Coriolis mass flowmeters can accurately control the small amounts of fat or flavour which is dosed into the revolving drum, or onto the final product, synchronised to the mass flow of the product. The EGM™ technology by KROHNE (Entrained Gas Management) was developed to overcome problems caused by air or gas entrainments in the flowing mixtures. Powerful control algorithms allow the flowmeter to maintain operation over a wide range of gas fractions and complex flow conditions.