Resolving a Product Quality Issue for a Major Cheese Factory

The company involved in this case study is a large cheese manufacturer located in the South Dakota area that makes cheese, whey, lactose, and anhydrous milk fat products for some of the largest food brands in the world. At the time they reached out to TFS for assistance, they were not yet a customer.

Challenge

The company was experiencing quality issues in the final stage of their process, which consisted of “blowing off” large blocks of cheese before being packaged and shipped to food processing companies.

They contacted Total Filtration Services to help determine a solution for their quality issues, as they were finding metal flakes on the blocks of cheese, which had already
caused them to throw away a large batch of product.

Failure to resolve this issue would result in thousands of dollars in wasted product, as well as cause damage to their brand reputation.

Recommended Solution

After surveying the area of concern, TFS found the particles (metal flakes) were coming from the metal separators on the HEPA filters. Because the separators weren't necessary in this application, TFS proposed switching to a similarly performing filter without the metal separators. Due to strong relationships with manufacturing partners, identifying the replacement filter was a short process.

HEPA is an acronym for "High-Efficiency
Particulate Air" or "HighEfficiency Particulate Arrestance." This
acronym refers to a mechanical air filter that is manufactured, tested,
certified, and labeled in accordance with current HEPA filter standards. it works by forcing air through a fine mesh that traps harmful particles.

Total Filtration Services partners with multiple trusted manufacturers of HEPA filters and can assist you with selecting the right model for your application.

Connect with A HEPA expert today

Result

The customer embraced the recommended solution to replace the existing HEPA filters with a new brand and model without the metal separators. They were satisfied to learn that the quality issue went away and that TFS brought a technical solution which solved a problem causing product loss costing $100,000. TFS was later asked to supply several other types of filtration products for applications throughout their facility.

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