Driessen Food Extrusion decided for Coperion Food Extruder to Expand its Production

Driessen Food Extrusion, The Netherlands, a food manufacturing company, decided to expand its production with a Coperion food extrusion line. The extrusion line comprises a ZSK 62 Mv PLUS Food Extruder that is equipped with a Coperion K-Tron high accuracy gravimetric feeder with ActiFlow technology as well as two liquid feeders. Driessen Food Extrusion produces diverse products for the food industry with their twin screw extrusion systems - from crispy grains to crunchy cookie pieces and from protein chips to precooked flour. Properties such as size, method of preparation, color and taste are tailored to customers’ requirements.

To expand the production and to be able to react to the fast-changing market and customer requirements, Driessen decided to buy a Coperion food extrusion system. Based on more than 15 years of experience with Coperion twin screw extruders, the company decided to choose a new state-of-the-art extrusion line that offers many advantages such as great flexibility for product changes as well as high throughput rates and high end product quality. The extrusion line for Driessen Food Extrusion is suitable for both TVPs and (special) breadcrumbs. The capacity of the company will be increased by approximately 8000 tons per year.

Food Extruder in Hygienic Design for Maximum Flexibility
Coperion’s twin screw extruder ZSK Mv PLUS provides ideal conditions for the extrusion of many types of food. The modular design of the extruder and its unusual combination of free screw volume, screw speed and torque enable the ZSK Food Extruder to be individually configured for every application. The extruder allows many quick product changeovers, giving the company the flexibility they need. In addition, due to the screw speed of up to 1,800 rpm and the specific torque of 11.3 Nm/cm³ the ZSK Food Extruder produces very high throughput rates.

Another advantage is the hygienic design to fulfill the increasingly stringent health and safety stipulations. The process section of the extruder is made of stainless steel, has only smooth surfaces and offers numerous advantages: Its excellent accessibility markedly reduces the effort needed for cleaning the system. Product safety and production safety are both improved. The downtime required for cleaning the machine is reduced to a minimum.

Accurate and Flexible Feeding Solutions
The ZSK Food Extruder is equipped with a high accuracy Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeder K2-ML-T60 for solid feeding. This loss-in-weight twin screw feeder is suitable for a wide range of ingredients and for high throughput rates. All parts in contact with the product are stainless steel to fulfill the hygienic requirements. The feeding equipment is easy to disassemble and is easy to clean.

The K2-ML-T60 feeder is equipped with the ActiFlow™ Smart Bulk Solids Activator. This technique offers a reliable method to prevent bridging and rat-holing of cohesive bulk materials in stainless steel hoppers without internal hopper agitation. ActiFlow is a non-product contact device, consisting of a vibratory drive and intelligent control unit, designed specifically to work with Coperion K-Tron’s line of gravimetric loss-in-weight feeders. Together with the ActiFlow control unit, it continuously activates the material inside the hopper with an optimized frequency and amplitude, without exerting any mechanical force on the bulk material.

The extrusion line also comprises two Coperion K-Tron liquid feeders for the accurate feeding of liquids into the process. These feeders can also be used for a wide variety of ingredients and enable the required flexibility. Coperion K-Tron offers a versatile, modular liquid feeding concept through combination of a wide range of different pumps and tanks.

“We are satisfied with our choice. Based on many years of positive experience, we have once again opted for a Coperion Food Extruder. The great flexibility, hygienic design and technical reliability have convinced us to be able to manufacture a wide range of existing and new products with high end product quality for our customers and to react quickly to new market changes”, according to Peter-Alexander Driessen, CEO at Driessen Food Extrusion.