Burns Pet Nutrition – A Success Story
Burns Pet Nutrition is a great example of a company with an efficient and prospective long-term strategy for their business. Therefore, it is no surprise to us that ...
... John Burns can celebrate his company’s 25th anniversary today, as it is the result of continuous hard work and wise decisions. Back in 2008, John Burns decided to buy a steam-water-spray retort with rotation, for his pet food production and that’s where our mutual history began.
While the steam-water-spray retort is already a very economical solution for pasteurization, or in this case sterilization of pet food, Burns Pet Nutrition even further optimised the efficiency of their retort.
dft technology retort – Type DAX1100-4 BV-VA-WT
They did so with their wise decision to install a plate-heat-exchanger, which is used to cut down on fresh water consumption during the cooling stage of the process. This modification can normally save you about 3 m3 of fresh water (depending on your process parameters) during each batch. This isn’t just more economical for your production, but also better for the environment.
Retort piping diagram – Type DAX1100-4 BV-VA-WT
Another key decision was to purchase a retort with a rotary function. This means that the machine is capable of performing an end-over-end rotation of all products inside the machine while being heated up. This gives you the possibility to produce a wider range of different products and increase quality, compared to a retort in a static version (e.g. products with lower viscosity).
Here is how Chris Morris from Burns Pet Nutrition summarises our relationship:
“We first purchased a ROTOVAP DRZ 1300-4-BV-VA-WT rotary spray retort back in 2008 and have had nothing but excellent service from sales to support. Operational wise, I can count on one hand the number of breakdowns we have encountered over the past 10 year period. Other than a single pump repair, the only replacement parts required have been consumables, such as door seals and recorder pens. “
As business was growing, Burns Pet Nutrition decided to buy another retort in 2014. This time it was a static steam-water-spray unit, which isn’t as flexible when it comes to the range of products, but even more economical. This is possible because you can produce the same number of products in a smaller vessel, which means even less water and steam consumption.
Retort spray system – Type DAX1100-4 BV-VA-WT
In terms of the heat-distribution system, we mutually agreed to use our new nozzles with wider openings and spray angle. The wider openings give some additional safety when it comes to process safety because we made it even more difficult for them to clog with foreign material (product remains, packaging material, limescale, …). On the other hand, this also reduces the maintenance work because cleaning can be done in longer intervals.
“In 2014 this led to us purchasing a second retort and not considering any other rival companies. This time we purchased an AUTOVAP DAX 1100-4-BV-VA-WT static spray and again, we cannot fault the reliability or service we have received from DFT. A truly reliable, well run, family organization that has been a pleasure to deal with.” (Chris Morris from Burns Pet Nutrition)
We are proud to have our little part in this great story and would like to congratulate John Burns on his big success!
We wish him and all his colleagues all the best for the next 25 years!