Leading Food & Beverage Applications of Screw Pumps 

Their ability to safely transfer a variety of food materials and ingredients while effectively operating under extreme temperatures, flow pressures, and viscosities make them an indispensable part of many food and beverage manufacturing operations.

What Are Screw Pumps?

Screw pumps are a type of positive displacement pump utilizing screw-shaped rotors that intermesh and rotate together to capture and transfer a range of materials, including fluids, gas-liquid mixtures, and solid-liquid mixtures.

There are different variations of screw pumps designed to handle specific substances or applications, including:

• Single Screw Pumps - The most common, single screw pumps are better known and often referred to as progressing cavity pumps. Their stator (screw) lightly contacts an elastomer stator, creating fixed cavities to convey a variety of difficult-to-pump media.

• Twin Screw Pumps - Drive and driven shafts and screws of this type are usually synchronized with timing gears. A variety of screw geometries are available for handling different materials.

• Triple Screw Pumps - These feature a drive screw and two driven screws, usually without timing gears. They are commonly used for lower-flow, higher-pressure applications such as lube oil systems.

• Four Screw Pumps - These models encompass two opposed, twin screw pumps using a drive shafts and timing gears to turn its screws synchronously together, without contacting.

• Five Screw Pumps - Featuring a drive screw and four driven screws, with timing gears, these are commonly used for high-viscosity fluids at higher flow rates and different pressures.

Screw pumps are especially effective at transferring high viscosity fluids and solid mixtures, as well as provide pulsation-free, low-shear handling of a wide variety of materials—making them useful for an assortment of food and beverage processing operations.

Common Uses of Screw Pumps in the Food & Beverage Industry

Single and twin screw pumps are the most commonly used screw pumps for food and beverage processing, as their designs are uniquely suited for sanitary applications.

Single Screw Pumps

Also known as progressing cavity pumps, single screw pumps, such as the Seepex model N and SCT series, are ideal for handling wastewater sludge and other hard-to-pump materials.

Food-grade sanitary versions such as the Seepex model CS are effective for conveying food products with low shear and minimal damage to solid food or ingredients, including fruits and vegetables. Seepex provides specialty versions with rectangular hopper or augur feed, as well.

Twin Screw Pumps

Twin screw pumps are characterized by their consistent flow and pulsation-free, low-shear pumping action. They also have the ability to effectively handle thin or thick fluids containing solids and are used to transfer a diverse array of products with very low rates of product or ingredient damage.

Q-Pumps’ model QTS twin screw pump is great at handling fluids with varying viscosities, ranging from 1 cP to 1,000,000 cP, and can easily and safely transfer ingredients including meat, dough, fruit purees, yogurts, glycerine, creams, and ointments, as well as fluids with a high degree of entrained air.

Q-Pumps’ model QTS is 3A and EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) certified for sanitary pumping in the food and beverage industry. Its design is fully cleanable-in-place (CIP), too, since it has no contacting parts in the wet end, and can therefore be sped up to full motor speed between batches to act as its own CIP pump.

The QTS series of pumps can handle flows up to 570 gpm (2158 lpm), pressures up to 360 psig (25 bar) and temperatures up to 300 degree Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius). A variety of rotor geometries are available to optimize pump performance based on viscosity, solids concentration and solid size, and other fluid characteristics. Twin screw pumps can also be used in automated food manufacturing applications to unload various ingredients from drums and storage systems.

Finding the right pumps and systems for your facilities is critical to your overall success. Working with industrial pump provider Sunair can help ensure your facilities and operations are outfitted with the highest-quality equipment for optimal performance.

Trust Sunair Co. for the Best Selection of Screw Pumps for Food & Beverage Processes

Sunair carries an extensive selection of premier sanitary screw pumps from the most trusted manufacturers in the industry, including Seepex and Q-Pumps—for whatever your food and beverage operations require.

Partner with Sunair to ensure your facilities are utilizing the best pump equipment for your purposes.

Sunair stocks the best industrial pumps and reliability equipment on the market, along with a broad suite of associated services, including expert installation, repair, and maintenance services, to help your operations run better, for longer.

For more information about our extensive list of top-quality pumps and equipment, or to learn how to improve your food and beverage operations, contact Sunair today.