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Product – Quadbeam Technologies S20 Suspended Solids Sensor.
Application
In the making of cheese a coagulant is added to the milk, often rennet, to coagulate the solids creating a curd. At an optimum point of coagulation, cutters are run through the cheese curd releasing whey. There are various ways the cut point is found, some quite sophisticated and some very simple and totally reliant on the Cheese Maker. It can be challenging to get a repeatable cutting point from batch to batch therefore quality can vary resulting in waste and loss of solids.
As cheese curd coagulates the ability to transmit light though it diminishes.
Quadbeam Technologies four beam ratio-metric infra-red, self compensating light attenuation sensor can accurately detect the change in the transmission of light through the curd and therefore be used as a tool to repeatedly identify a predetermined point in which to begin cutting.
The Quadbeam Technologies sensor emits alternating pulsed infra-red light from two different sources and detects light at two points. The sensor's transmitter provides a 4-20mA output signal that can be fed into a PCL or DCS. The signal reflects the change in ability for light to be transmitted through the curd, effectively giving a readout of the coagulation process.
Quadbeam Technologies sensors can be used in both raw milk and standardised milk processes.
Returns
Improved quality and retention of the optimum level of solids in the cheese through being able to establish the predetermined cutting point in a repeatable and accurate way.
This will reduce product waste costs and provide the customer with the repeated quality product they expect.
Installation
More commonly a Quadbeam Technologies S20-3HY Hygienic sensor is mounted into a 3” triclover fitting onto the side of the vat.
In some cases a S20-IMM Immersion style sensor is mounted on the end of a stainless pipe and manually dipped into the cheese vat by the operator. In this case information is not necessarily transmitted back to a PLC or DCS but data is collected manually directly from the transmitter readout.
Whey Monitoring
Using either a Quadbeam Technologies S40 or T30 it is also possible to monitor solids levels in the whey being released from the cheese. This information can be used to vary the cutting process.
