Cost-effective, repeatable processes are important to market success in industries ranging from food processing to cosmetics production. A common concern among manufacturers in these industries is how to ensure that they achieve the expected pay-back and return on investment on plant upgrades and new process implementation.
For many, the answers may be found at the APV® testing facilities in Denmark. APV, an SPX company, is a global leader in sanitary and industrial markets and serves a wide range of industries, including food, dairy and beverage; healthcare, pharmaceutical and personal care; power generation; chemical; HVAC and oil and gas.
Test Driving Solutions
Located in Silkeborg, Denmark, the APV Innovation Center provides customers with the opportunity to test equipment they purchase, as well as the processes and new technologies they wish to run on them, under actual operating conditions at the APV facility.
Doing so helps to ensure the equipment delivers the desired performance before customers implement changes in their existing plants and processes.
The center, which serves customers around the world, features complete laboratory facilities for chemical, microbiological and functional analyses; pilot plants for heat treatment, membrane filtration and other processes, as well as a wide array of other processing equipment. (Pilot plants are small processing systems operated to generate information about the behavior of a system or process for use in designing full-scale facilities.)
The Value of Testing
While testing processes and recipes in test kitchens or laboratories allows for rounds of adaptation and refinement, customers typically don’t have the luxury of halting production in a processing plant running near capacity for experimental runs of new products or processes.
“Our facilities not only provide an opportunity for customers to test the suitability and quality of equipment,” explains Claus Thorsen, manager of the APV Innovation Center.
“Accurate assessment comes from testing product variations in taste, color, texture and moisture levels with product run through equipment that matches or approximates the machines involved in full-scale production.
“This also gives the customers clues to optimizing processes and production costs prior to investment and installation. Variables such as energy, labor, supplies and replacement parts can be factored into manufacturing and operations costs.”
Here, There, Anywhere
Not everyone can spend a week away from their own facility to test equipment or a process off-site. That’s why customers can choose to involve their own experts in testing processes at the Innovation Center, have testing done entirely by APV engineers, or have the APV engineers come to the customers’ own production facilities.
Customers who choose to run trials at their own facilities can rent whatever equipment they need to complete their testing. Equipment rentals cover both pilot plant and full production-scale processing lines and can be combined with a purchase option after successfully completed trials.
The Extras
Thorsen says the “extras” that APV offers—things like rigorous management execution systems, data analysis and maintenance planning—also give customers reassurance about their investments in new equipment and processes.
“We have the facilities, systems and expertise to help customers make their operations more flexible, cut energy costs, increase production volumes or meet new environmental regulations without sacrificing the quality of the final product,” Thornsen says.
Customers are also guaranteed complete confidentiality—an important consideration for companies wishing to test proprietary technology that could give them a competitive edge in the market place.