12 Benefits of Centralized Vacuum Supply

Using vac­u­um or pro­tec­tive gas­es to pack­age fresh food is cur­rent­ly the most com­mon­ly used method for hygien­i­cal­ly pack­ag­ing food and keep­ing it fresh for as long as pos­si­ble. By remov­ing as much oxy­gen as fea­si­ble, the vac­u­um reduces micro-organ­ism activ­i­ty in and on the food so that it lasts longer, even with­out preser­v­a­tives. Select­ing the right vac­u­um gen­er­a­tor has a sig­nif­i­cant influ­ence on the pack­ag­ing result, the oper­a­tional safe­ty, and the eco­nom­ic effi­cien­cy of the pack­ag­ing process. If a plant uses mul­ti­ple pack­ag­ing machines that require vac­u­um to pack­age food­stuffs, it may be worth con­sid­er­ing cen­tral­iz­ing the vac­u­um sup­ply. A cen­tral vac­u­um sup­ply can save a large amount of the oper­at­ing costs and gen­er­ate addi­tion­al ben­e­fits, which we have summed up here.

Benefit 1: Energy saving

Cen­tral vac­u­um sys­tems gen­er­al­ly need few­er vac­u­um pumps than a decen­tral­ized vac­u­um sup­ply con­nect­ed direct­ly to the indi­vid­ual pack­ag­ing machines. This results in a cor­re­spond­ing reduc­tion in ener­gy consumption.

Benefit 2: High uptime

Cen­tral vac­u­um sys­tems fea­ture a stand-by vac­u­um mod­ule, which starts up auto­mat­i­cal­ly if one of the vac­u­um pumps fails. And yet, they still con­sist of few­er vac­u­um pumps than a decen­tral­ized supply.

Benefit 3: Demand-driven operation

Gen­er­al­ly, not all pack­ag­ing machines require the max­i­mum pos­si­ble vac­u­um per­for­mance at the same time. Pack­ag­ing machines with their own vac­u­um pump are always oper­at­ing at full pow­er, which is why they con­sume a lot of ener­gy. Cen­tral vac­u­um sys­tems are con­trolled on a demand-dri­ven basis. This means that switch­ing indi­vid­ual vac­u­um mod­ules on and off enables the vac­u­um sys­tem’s per­for­mance to be adapt­ed to over­all demand. The use of vari­able speed dri­ves allows for even fin­er-tuned per­for­mance adjust­ment. As such, the sys­tem only gen­er­ates as much vac­u­um as need­ed at that point in time.

In prac­tice, this results in even greater ener­gy-sav­ing potential.

Benefit 4: Easy maintenance

Any main­te­nance work on the indi­vid­ual vac­u­um mod­ules in a cen­tral vac­u­um sup­ply can be per­formed while the sys­tem is run­ning with­out any restric­tions. Easy acces­si­bil­i­ty to the indi­vid­ual vac­u­um pumps is guar­an­teed. Main­te­nance staff does not even need to enter the pro­duc­tion or pack­ag­ing areas.

Benefit 5: No noise emissions

Cen­tral vac­u­um sys­tems are nor­mal­ly set up in spe­cial equip­ment rooms so that they are sep­a­rat­ed from pro­duc­tion and pack­ag­ing areas. This means that the vac­u­um pumps do not sub­ject staff to any noise emis­sions at their work stations.

Benefit 6: Cleaner working environment

Because main­te­nance work on the vac­u­um pumps is per­formed out­side the pro­duc­tion and pack­ag­ing areas, any hygien­i­cal­ly sen­si­tive zones will not be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed. Fur­ther­more, the vac­u­um pumps do not have to be cleaned, unlike the vac­u­um pumps installed in pro­duc­tion areas, where they can be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by food residue, for example.

Benefit 7: Low room temperature

Like all machin­ery, vac­u­um pumps also gen­er­ate heat. On the one hand, the extract­ed air is hot as it leaves the pump and, on the oth­er hand, the vac­u­um pump also radi­ates heat itself. When installed in pro­duc­tion or pack­ag­ing areas, a vac­u­um pump emits this heat into the sur­round­ing air. Because pro­duc­tion and pack­ag­ing nor­mal­ly take place in cooled areas, the air con­di­tion­ing in these rooms needs to be increased. Cen­tral­iz­ing the vac­u­um sup­ply in a sep­a­rate room elim­i­nates this prob­lem and allows addi­tion­al ener­gy costs to be saved on air conditioning.

Benefit 8: Long lifetime

While a vac­u­um pump in a decen­tral­ized set­up near­ly always runs at full pow­er when­ev­er the pack­ag­ing machine is switched on, the oper­at­ing hours for the same vac­u­um pump in a demand-dri­ven cen­tral vac­u­um sys­tem are low­er, increas­ing the life­time as a result. Run­ning the vac­u­um pumps at a con­stant pres­sure puts less strain on them. This extends the main­te­nance intervals.

Benefit 9: Heat recovery

Using an oil-water heat exchang­er enables 50 to 70 per­cent of a motor’s ener­gy con­sump­tion to be recov­ered and used.

Benefit 10: Efficient distribution of the working load

On the one hand, the con­trol sys­tem in a cen­tral vac­u­um sup­ply ensures that only as many vac­u­um mod­ules need­ed to cov­er cur­rent demand are run­ning. On the oth­er hand, the indi­vid­ual mod­ules are used in a way that ensures they all have the same num­ber of oper­at­ing hours. This even­ly dis­trib­utes the work­ing load. As a result, main­te­nance inter­vals can be planned and per­formed in a pre­ven­tive and effi­cient manner.

Benefit 11: Simple expansion

Thanks to a vac­u­um sys­tem’s mod­u­lar design, addi­tion­al mod­ules can be eas­i­ly added when extend­ing pack­ag­ing capac­i­ty, for exam­ple by installing a new pack­ag­ing line.

Benefit 12: Lower operating costs

Reduc­ing the num­ber of vac­u­um pumps, using demand-dri­ven con­trol and reduc­ing the air con­di­tion­ing enables a sig­nif­i­cant amount of ener­gy costs to be saved. Fur­ther ener­gy-sav­ing poten­tial results from eas­i­er and, as a result, faster main­te­nance work. This can be car­ried out dur­ing nor­mal work­ing time, elim­i­nat­ing addi­tion­al costs for week­end work. Heat recov­ery helps to save addi­tion­al costs.