Centrifuges for the Dairy Industry | 
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Centrifuges have been used in dairies and cheese making plants for more than 100 years.
A large number of different types of centrifuge are employed.
The majority of these are the cream separators or skimmers. These are used in a variety of stages in the process,
described as examples below:
The classic application was, and still is even today, the separation of milk into cream and skimmed milk.
These separators not only separate the cream from the skimmed milk but also centrifuge off any impurities
that might be contained in the raw milk. The skimmed milk is subsequently e.g. mixed with cream again to
achieve the desired fat content in the milk, or is further processed (e.g. to produce cheese). The cream is
generally used for the production of butter.
The whey produced during the manufacture of cheese still contains fat. This fat is valuable and can be
recovered using a special whey skimming separator. For this reason, the whey is generally also skimmed.
Furthermore, there are also cleaning separators in various versions to suit the application. These differ from
the skimming separators in that they separate only solids. These cleaning separators are employed today
predominantly for the following applications:
Before the whey can enter the skimming separator for skimming, it has to be precleaned. This precleaning can
be performed e.g. with screens, but is most effective if again a cleaning separator designed specially for
this application is employed. Use of this type of cleaning separator also increases the efficiency of the
downline whey skimming separator.
Cleaning separators designed specially for the application are also employed to remove any impurities
from the raw milk.
The CIP lyes employed in the dairy have to be replaced very quickly without treatment. The resulting costs
for lye disposal and the mixing of new lye are considerable. In order to extend the service life of these
CIP lyes, special cleaning separators can again be employed that clean the lyes very efficiently in a very
short time.
In order to prolong the shelf life of consumers milk
or to prevent undesirable reactions during cheese production, sterilising separators or “bactofuges”
are employed.
 Bacteria removing or bactofugation
Bacteria removing centrifuges or bactofuges can be employed for (consumers milk) and cheese milk, but also for
skimmed milk (or whey) and special processes.
Apart from milk and whey , other products are also manufactured in the dairies and cheese making plants such as e.g. cottage cheese (quark), cream cheese, double cream cheese, butteroil, casein and lactose (milk sugar).
Special centrifuges are employed for the manufacture of these products and are described briefly below:
The quark separator, a separator designed specially for this application, is charged here with thickened
skimmed milk. The concentrated quark is discharged continuously. Modern quark separators can also be cleaned
in place (“CIP”).
Special separators that can also be cleaned in place (“CIP”) are employed for the production of cream cheese.
Here the separator is charged with thickened fatty milk instead of skimmed milk.
Special separators are also employed for the production of double cream cheese.
The production of butteroil using special separators is normally a two-stage process. Thanks to its good
shelf life, butteroil is particularly suitable for use in tropical regions, but it is also used for baking,
cooking and frying.
Apart from separators, decanters are also used in the dairy industry. A few typical fields of application
are described below:
The precipitated casein is separated out of the resulting whey in a special casein decanter. Casein has a
wide range of applications; both in the foodstuffs industry and for technical purposes.
The lactose is precipitated and subsequently separated in a special decanter. Lactose (milk sugar) is
employed i.a. as a basis for tablet compounds, and also as a coating, binding and filling agent.
Concentration of cheese dust
The cheese dust/whey/water mixture discharged by the automatic emptying when using whey clarification and/or whey
skimming separators can be further processed to a concentrated, valuable cheese mass. Special decanters can be
employed here that can significantly increase the solid non-fat content of the mixture described above.
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