Three times better: GEA TDS GmbH

The company Tuchenhagen Dairy Systems GmbH
now trades under the name of GEA TDS GmbH.

The new name reflects the globally successful engineering company's growing performance and competence range. A staff of currently over 300 do not only serve process and automation technology for the dairy processing industry. GEA TDS is also one of the leading international partners for the fruit juice and food processing industries.

"The word 'Dairy' has not been reflecting the full range of our activities for a long time now, we do much more", explains Joachim Haase, Managing Director of GEA TDS. "And we did not want the new name to be a tongue twister for our customers in the USA and Asia either.
This is why we have chosen this letter combination", he adds with a smile.
"In the year 2007 our sales increased by 15 percent to EUR 105 million. This growth can mainly be put down to international sales", Joachim Haase clarifies.

The ever-changing high-hygiene sector, in particular, has contributed to the specialization in specific industries. GEA TDS is technology leader in aseptic process technology.
The reason of this success is consistent customer focus:
GEA TDS accompanies projects from consulting through to integration or handover. This is the only way to ensure solutions that fully satisfy the customer – and the only way to develop new practice-oriented products. No matter whether process plants, units or automation – there is a right answer for production requirements in each individual industrial sector.

GEA TDS GmbH is synonymous with constantly high product quality and consistent product tracing and tracking. This makes GEA TDS a reliable partner for the dairy, food and the fruit juice and primary industries in the execution of economically efficient and perfectly hygienic plants. From isometric drawings to pipe class specifications, from detailed engineering to project management, the company's product range serves customers at the highest level.
Central issues such as deaeration and mixing are optimally translated into individual plant concepts. As an expert for pasteurization and process control, GEA TDS also has an eye for the process boundaries. This systematic approach enables us to quickly respond to new trends and find appropriate technological solutions. For instance for UHT systems that process high viscosity fluids as well as media containing large particles or fibres.
"Smoothie" lines can therefore easily handle 100% juice containing fibres of up to 25 mm and fruit pieces up to 6 mm. And, what is more, error quota in open recipe systems can be minimized by electronic control processes.

Product specification is a central business management aspect in all branches of industry. GEA TDS mixing plants provide ideal process conditions: dry substances or pasty media are added to the right liquid phase. Several liquid phases or paste media are blended to form a final product. Products from various components are made in a batch process, or basic products are varied by adding ingredients prior to filling. GEA TDS satisfies individual requirements with solutions that ensure top quality and reliably increase productivity.

Safety and quality are inseparably linked. This is why GEA TDS has started to focus on hygiene, sterile, aseptic and process automation at a very early stage. Our central objective is to maintain constantly high hygiene standards for the complete process technology right to the filling line. Reduction of microorganisms and gentle handling are key design specifications. GEA TDS is meeting this challenge with direct and indirect heating plants as well as microfiltration and deep-bed filtration plants – contamination proof and economically efficient. This is because small heat exchange areas and high heat recovery rates of pasteurization units help to considerably reduce investment and energy costs.
In the filtration processes it is the long production time of the membrane (of up to ten hours) and the fact that the product is heated at a relatively low temperature and for just a brief period that ensure bacteria removal and minimize costs. The quality for the final product is measured by standards such as the β-lactoglobulin and lactulose values. They are determined with reference to the values of fresh milk. The process has not only proven its worth because of its dependability. It has also met with enthusiastic approval in industry because of consistently high production times and its impressive filling speed. The end of this process chain is frequently formed by aseptic filling technology.

The three industries at a glance:

FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY

The growing market for liquid foodstuff containing large particles and with various viscosities needs solid know-how in the field of mixing plant engineering. GEA TDS mixing plants blend thermal process steps, weighing processes and mixing phases into a perfect concept.
Recipes for low viscosity, high viscosity or particulate fluids are controlled semi-automatically or fully automatically. The mixing process produces a suspension or dispersion as the result. The process takes place at atmospheric pressure, below atmospheric pressure or above atmospheric pressure, up to 3 bars. Double-shell tanks allow heating up to tmax. = approx. 100° C or cooling with ice water down to tmin. = approx. 1°C. This thermal processing in a secondary circuit is extremely gentle to the product.
The mixing tank is equipped with a central agitator, anchor stirrer with scraper stirring clockwise/anticlockwise and an impeller. An additional agitator can be designed as directed jet mixer. Alternatively, it can be supplied with a tooth wheel and a dissolver. The agitators can be frequency-controlled for optimal matching to the mixing process.

FRUIT JUICE AND PRIMARY INDUSTRY

Quality assurance is an issue that is directly associated with "Quality made in Germany". In our Fruit Juice Competence Center GEA TDS has developed a fruit juice pasteurizer that is convincing on different levels. Its core element is the VARITUBE® tubular heat exchanger with direct heat recovery without intermediate circuit. The special VARITUBE® SK flow device ensures smooth handling of high viscosity products and products containing fibres up to a length of 30 mm. The products can undergo treatment as they pass through the inner pipe as well as on the shell side. Apart from perfect bacteriological results plant owners benefit from low investment costs and high heat recovery rates of more than 90 percent for low viscosity products.

Not only the production process in the narrower sense, but also process data management ensures the consistently high quality. As an engineering company for the entire process chain GEA TDS offers, for instance, scanner systems based on an SQL database. Especially for flexible mixing processes which require manual intervention, this electronic Trace & Tracking application is an ideal tool. The application satisfies all legal requirements and covers the entire production process.


DAIRY INDUSTRY

Product features are constantly being developed. This also applies to basic foods such as milk. How can secondary benefits be enhanced to increase the attractiveness of milk to consumers? For instance by extending the shelf life without losing the fresh taste! For this purpose, GEA TDS has introduced several microbial reduction methods on the market. They allow the production of Extended Shelf Life milk (ESL milk), which means that the shelf life of raw milk is extended to at least 21 days at storage temperatures of under 8 °C. Extended Shelf Life in this context needs to be understood as a quality grade for the high hygienic standard of the entire process technology.

The different process concepts can be classified into heating and filtration processes. Among the thermal processes, direct heating is the most gentle to the product. This results in a low lactulose value of < 20 mg/kg and a lower degree of denaturation of native β-lactoglobulin of approx. >1600 mg/l. Irrespective of the heating principle, heat recovery rates of approx. 50% can be achieved.
Indirect heating has a considerably higher heat recovery rate of approx. 80 percent. Lower investment and operating costs as well as a less complex process technology can also be mentioned in favour of indirect heating. If investment costs are the major aspect to be considered, the modified pasteurizer is an alternative to thermal processes. Because this patented system makes it possible to retrofit an additional tubular module to an existing conventional milk pasteurizer. This design allows heating processes from 74° C to 125° C.
In comparison with the thermal processes, the lactulose and β-lactoglobulin values achieved by the filtration processes are most similar to the values for conventional fresh milk. In comparison with the heating concepts, deep-bed filtration can be regarded as the most gentle production process for ESL milk. No retentate is produced during deep-bed filtration, which needs to be heated - besides heating cream - at higher temperatures than 74 °C. In the microfiltration process, the retentate produced is high-heat treated in the cream pasteurizer for 4 – 6 seconds at 90 °C – 110 ° C. In comparison with deep-bed filtration, this leads to lower β-lactoglobulin – and higher lactulose values. From a sensory quality point of view, virtually no loss can be detected in comparison with conventional fresh milk with a shelf life of 6 – 12 days.

Finally, the ESL milk or the dairy end product is filled into commercial packages on an aseptic filling line. This market-leading microbial reduction concept does not only impress by the safety it provides (the risk of cross-contamina tion between the outside and inside of the packages is reliably excluded) but it also allows consistently high production times, which vary between 72 and 120 hours, depending on the product. During filling, enormous speeds are achieved: up to 720 PET bottles can be filled per minute, for instance. In brief, GEA TDS also fully satisfies entrepreneurial expectations for the entire process chain as far as economic efficiency is concerned.