Industry sector: Food & beverage
Company activity: Manufacturing of baby food from milk (milk powder, whey powder and infant milk formulas)
Company type: International group
Contacts: Maintenance manager – Energy manager – Factory scheduling manager & production coordinator – Warehouse manager – Purchasing manager
Company context
To produce its milk-based products, the company uses various filtration systems, notably for river water filtration and for the production of osmosis water required on the production lines.
Filtration challenge
The company was facing two distinct filtration issues, directly affecting production:
- The first concerned the use of river water: during surface pumping periods, water quality required high-flow filtration cartridges to be replaced every 12 hours. Replacement occurred at 1 bar differential pressure; beyond this threshold, the flow rate became insufficient to supply the reverse osmosis unit (40 m³/h). The final filtration stage (1 µm) was the most affected by clogging elements ranging from 1 to 3 µm.
- The second concerned excessive cartridge delivery times: the supplier and operator of the reverse osmosis water production system used for infant milk manufacturing was frequently out of stock and unable to commit to a product availability date. Furthermore, it was impossible to substitute an equivalent product from another supplier, as the mounting connection between the filter cartridge and the filtration housing was specific to this manufacturer.
Pemflow filtration solution
We therefore proposed the following technical and logistical improvements:
- Protect the two HFC filtration stages with a high-efficiency bag pre-filtration
- Replace the two high-flow 40″ filters previously used (stainless steel housing and pleated cartridge in “proprietary” format) with a standard model
- Upgrade the installation to significantly extend the interval between filter cartridge replacements
- Secure supply by establishing a dedicated buffer stock of filtration cartridges in our facilities
- Optimise the filtration consumables budget for this process.

Contact a filtration expert
We are at your service
Our experts place their knowledge and expertise at your disposal for liquid filtration, air and gas filtration, decontamination, and separation technologies.