New acquisition adds high-shear mixing to the GEA Process Engineering range

Oct. 24, 2011 - PRLog -- This new agreement has given GEA Process Engineering companies a full range of mixing equipment especially designed for the dairy, food, beverage and personal care market. The products have a significant technological advantage and will be developed further by GEA.

The new mixing business will be headquartered at GEA Skanderborg in Denmark. The new brand is called Mixing Formula. Both Batch and In-Line mixing technology will be marketed under this brand.

For some time the GEA has recognised that it needed mixing technology to meet the growing need for pre-prepared dairy and food products, beverage products and personal care products.  The Mixing Formula range will have a high-shear capability that is ideally suited to the mixing of high-viscosity dairy and food products such as ketchup, mayonnaise, baby-food, sweetened condensed milk, ice cream mixes, processed cheese and spreads; beverage products like ready to drink iced coffees, chocolate drinks and isotonic drinks; and personal care products such as gels and creams.

Bjarne Darré from GEA Skanderborg has been involved in the acquisition of the new technology from the start.  He said that the Mixing Formula range homogenises and mixes a product in one operation and has the ability to liquefy whole fruit, including fibres that are hard to homogenise, into juices.  “Products such as pineapple, for example, that have a high fibre content, can be mixed and homogenised using the Mixing Formula products.  This is not something that conventional systems can handle.” Bjarne added that he felt that this is the right product and the right price and that sales were already going well.

The new Mixing Formula range extends from a lab-sized machine of just ten litres up to full production equipment handling up to 15,000 litres in a single batch at viscosities up to 50,000 Cp.  Alternatively the system can be used in a continuous process that will handle up to 40,000 litres/hour at lower viscosities.  “We are looking at developing this continuous processing option even further in the future,” said Bjarne.

This new acquisition for GEA Process Engineering represents a step change in the offering to customers that addresses the demand for high-viscosity mixing throughout the target market.