Ensure Consistent Wine Quality and Improve Process Efficiency with Turbidity Measurement

For the wine consumer, the first quality characteristic, even before the smell and ultimately the taste, is the visual experience. In addition to color, the clarity of the wine is particularly important

The problem: Before the wine is bottled, it is filtered to remove suspended particles. In a centrifuge application, solid particles in the wine are separated and will accumulate in the centrifuge drum bowl. Once the drum bowl is full of solids, it must be purged to maintain the continuous process and, more importantly, sustain the processor’s wine quality standard.

If the drum bowl is not purged in time, solids will pass through the centrifuge and flow to the packaging line. If the drum is purged too early, wine, along with the solids, will be pushed to drain, reducing production yield.

The solution: ITM-4 turbidity meter. In the centrifuge application, when the drum bowl begins to reach the fill level, wine turbidity at the discharge of the centrifuge will start to rise. This increase in turbidity is easily detected by the ITM-4. With a range of 0 to 5000 NTU, the ITM-4 4–20 mA signal can be scaled to accurately measure product turbidity and signal the PLC when process turbidity setpoints are reached.