Posted to News on 26th Nov 2012, 17:30
Jabsco flexible impeller pumps keep the wine flowing
Jabsco pumps from Xylem are keeping the wine flowing in wineries around the world, helping vintners work their magic while protecting this delicate product during processes and transfer operations, so the wine keeps its full character and distinctive flavour.
The secret of successfully handling grapes is gentle handling and avoiding damage. Jabsco first solved this problem more than 60 years ago when it invented flexible impeller pump technology. Offering significant benefits compared with other types of pump for moving viscous foodstuffs and liquids containing fragile solids, flexible impeller pumps (FIPs) have minimal meshing action and can be run at low speed, so both viscous fluids and solid particles pass through without harm. The design of FIPs is also well suited to moving and transferring wine, as these pumps have enough suction to lift and push fluids over distances, as well as predictable flow and significant pressure, needed in wine filtration and bottling processes.
Jabsco pumps provide winemakers with the ability to transfer just-harvested grapes from a de-stemmer/crusher to a tank for fermentation without emulsifying the contents and for pump-overs in the tanks for colour enhancement of red wines. The design of these large FIP positive displacement pumps is also well suited to moving wine around a winery for other transfer applications, such as tank to tank transfer and filling and empting barrels. FIPs are also used to move wine through the filtering process to remove sediment of solids and then pump the product forward to the bottling lines.
For smaller wineries, Jabsco FIPs are a cost-effective single pump with multiple uses. Larger-scale producers use multiple Jabsco FIPs for dedicated tasks such as automated pump-over for red fermentations, which requires a pump that can lift must juice over the top of the tank at a high rate of flow, extracting optimum flavour and colour. They provide the greatest versatility at a modest cost, not only on initial capital outlay, but also as a whole of life cost: FIPs are both simple and inexpensive to maintain and repair. The impeller is softer than the pump cavity, so should a vineyard staple get drawn in by accident, for example, an FIP would only require a few minutes' attention, whereas a progressing cavity or rotary lobe pump may be destroyed.
Jabsco continues to invest in and develop its FIP product line, providing a complete, cost effective product to wineries of all sizes - a single, multi-use pump that is able to handle pumping tasks throughout the entire winemaking process.
To find out more about Jabsco pumps and flexible impeller pump technology, please visit www.xyleminc.com/.
