Oskaloosa Puts its Eggs in a New Basket

New pumps help Oskaloosa Food Products remain a premium egg product provider

At Oskaloosa Food Products Corporation's state-of-the-art production facility in Oskaloosa, Iowa, commitment to continuous improvement and product quality are two things they take very seriously in order to preserve their reputation as an industry leader in dried, liquid and frozen egg products. All of Oskaloosa's processes are designed around HACCP and Total Quality Concepts with strict adherance to clearly defined procedures. The end result is a full line of exceptional egg products that are not compromised with respect to quality, value and overall excellence.

When Fristam Pumps learned that Oskaloosa's existing positive displacement pump required daily tear down for cleaning and was vibrating and cavitating, Fristam approached Oskaloosa with a proposal to replace the existing pump with Fristam's FKL. The response from Oskaloosa President Blair Van Zetten was straightforward: "Prove to us that your pump will handle all our fluid egg products gently and efficiently and effectively clean in place to USDA standards without teardown or disassembly."

The FKL was purchased with a performance guarantee that stated it would meet the above criteria or it could be returned to Fristam at no charge.

The FKL positive displacement pump handled every product (whole egg, salted yolk, sugar yolk, and yolk blends) gently and efficiently as promised. The tight tolerances of the pump and its patented balanced rotor design give the pump excellent suction capability resulting in reduced cavitation and extremely high efficiency.

Van Zetten was interested in a change that could save time and money and alleviate performance issues. "At first, we were simply interested in improving pump life and reducing maintenance costs. The existing pumps were producing severe vibration and pulsation and we were only getting about six months of operation between rebuilds on some of the more difficult applications. The FKL pump has eliminated virtually all vibration," which improves the life and operation of the pump, as well as other equipment in the process.

The pump that the FKL replaced required daily teardown and removal of rotors to be cleaned. USDA inspection and verification of cleanability was required on a daily basis as well. Designed to be cleaned in place, the FKL pump requires no teardown to be CIP-ed. By simply running the pump during the CIP cycle (with a bypass to take the excess flow) the FKL proved that it cleans up extremely well, saving the maintenance of teardown and improving the repeatability and overall effectiveness of the CIP process.

After several weeks of daily USDA inspections for cleanability, the pump continually met all requirements which allowed for a subsequent reduction in the inspection frequency from daily to weekly. "It has also proved to clean perfectly and drastically reduce our maintenance costs and downtime for cleaning or rebuilding," remarked Van Zetten.

With the process conditions met, Oskaloosa Food Products purchased the trial pump along with a second FKL pump almost immediately. According to Van Zetten, "The benefits of the FKL pump have exceeded our expectations to the extent that within a year of the first install, we've replaced every critical process pump in our facility with a Fristam FKL."

For more information about Fristam Pumps USA, visit www.fristam.com/usa. For more information about Oskaloosa visit www.oskyfoods.com.