The hoses produced by Aflex Hose, part of Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group, are being used in the key milk producing region of Minas Gerais in Brazil, to help reduce production costs and increase reliability of 'requeijao' production. 'Requeijao' is a spreadable variation on cream cheese, typically eaten with bread or toast, and which is also used as an ingredient in some traditional Brazilian dishes. Due to its soft texture, when it comes to packing the product, the cream cheese has to be pumped through filling nozzles into 250ml glass jars at the dairy's filling area. Until recently, the filling process employed an established brand of food-grade EPDM rubber hose assemblies. However, the dynamic, rapid and repetitive filling action, together with daily clean-in-place (CIP) requirements of the production line, resulted in these hose assemblies not standing up to the rigors of the application. Typically, the dairy found that the hoses were rupturing internally, particularly in the areas where the end-fittings were crimped into the hoses. This meant that hose assembly changeouts were required at intervals of between four and six months. These frequent changeouts resulted in additional costs associated with the direct costs of replacing the hoses, and also with an increase in associated production stoppages, maintenance duties and man-hours.
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