Milk Collection

After investigating the worldwide scene of milk collection systems, no other was found to match the loading speed of the New Zealand system.  This is through the use of a standard milk vat located on a raised platform adjacent to the milk tanker bay (only a short 3” hose is required to make the connection) together with a well developed road tanker design incorporating the hydraulically driven Nuphlo 4" Model C250 centrifugal pump.  This system results in high rates of milk collection up to 2000 litres per minute on today's New Zealand milk collection tankers.  Nearly all milk tankers in New Zealand now have the Nuphlo / NZH Transport Solutions system, with over 500 milk pumps currently in use..

However, the picture is different in other milk producing countries.  In Australia for instance, collection is carried out by private operators who commission their vehicles for multi-purpose tanker work, not specifically milk collection, resulting in a variety of pump types and drive systems.  Many of the farm vats are old with restrictive outlets, placed at a distance and often in a negative head situation, relative to the collection vehicle.  To cater for these, long suction hoses (up to 30’ of 2” to 2½” hose) and self priming pumps are deployed on the milk tankers.  Pumps traditionally used are lobe (a more complex and expensive type pump) and flexible impeller.  To increase flow rate, the Nuphlo liquid ring pump has been more recently used.  The main disadvantage of all these pumps is, they cannot equal the throughput of the equivalent sized centrifugal pump.. more about pumps used for milk collection ...  

Nuphlo Pumps and NZH Transport Solutions have worked closely to improve milk loading rates in Australia and the latest system incorporating a priming pump in conjunction with the large 4” centrifugal has proved a particularly successful combination.  The Australian dairy companies and their tanker operators are readily changing to this pumping system with milk loading rates of at least 1500 l/m being readily achieved.  This is a big improvement on the 400 - 1000 l/m being pumped previously.  When hose sizes and farm vats are upgraded, loading rates will improve further.

A number of milk producing countries around the world use flexible impeller pumps driven by electric motors on their milk collection tankers.  However, electric motor (and consequently pump size) is limited to the power supply available in the countryside, usually a maximum of 3kW.  Where higher milk uplift rates are required (as in Australia and New Zealand) higher pump driving power is needed and the power from the truck’s engine can best be used to do this via a hydraulic connection.

For smaller milk tankers where volume is low, the Nuphlo C200 centrifugal is close-coupled to the Honda 5.5 hp motor with 2:1 gear reduction.   The output shaft has a maximum speed of 1800 rpm on this motor which is considered the maximum for milk or shear sensitive products.    

Flexible impeller pumps are extensively used in the New Zealand dairy industry by farmers to pump whole milk into their storage vats.. more about silicone impellers used in Nuphlo flexible impellers pumps ...

Features

• All the special features pertaining to the Nuphlo C250 Centrifugal Pump, LR250 Liquid Ring Pump, PD20 and PD30 Flexible Impellers Pumps apply to these hydraulically driven versions.
• All pumps are close coupled via an enclosed aluminium bell-housing to a hydraulic gear motor.  The unit can be bulk-head mounted.
• The large, dynamically balanced impeller on the centrifugal pumps runs at a slow 1500 – 1800 rpm to prevent damage to the fat particles in whole milk collected from the farm tanks.
• Pre-greased double row ball races are fitted to the pump shaft to ensure long, trouble free life.