GEA Niro Soavi wins the worldwide challenge of high pressure homogenizers thanks to a unique bundling of technology

In February 2010, the highlight of GEA Niro Soavi homogenizers, the new Ariete NS5355, was successfully implemented in the production line of Granarolo Pasturago di Verante factory, thus strengthening the relationship between the client and our company. A relationship characterized by cooperation and striving to find integrated process solutions for the benefit of the customer.
Ariete NS5355 was installed together with the rest of the plant, which was also in its start-up phase, and immediately showed its advantages in terms of performance and reliability.
Aware of our new product’s potential and extremely high quality resulting from the company's core know how of experience and spirit of innovation, GEA Niro Soavi bravely faced the challenge and succeeded in not only testing the unit on-site but also in customizing and adjusting it to the client's production requirements.
In fact, Ariete NS5355 met and exceeded all the client's needs, which were: an efficient level of homogenization, perfect synergy and integration of the unit within the rest of the plant, continuous and efficient output, excellent accessibility to mechanical components with a clear easiness of maintenance. Typical characteristics of GEA Niro Soavi's thorough and advanced engineering.

Technological innovation
Unique in the market in terms of its compactness and 5-piston power, Ariete NS5355 is currently the only homogenizer combining versatility, power, performance, reliability, ease of use and energy efficiency. One of its greatest innovations is the maximization of gearbox performance thanks to the exclusive use of an integrated epicyclic reduction gear. This allows the homogenizer's traditional range of applications to be extended to new products that require high production capacities at high operating pressures.

Project Development
The unit was successfully commissioned out in Granarolo's factory. The unit is completely automated and allows for efficient communication and integration with the rest of the plant that was also in a start-up phase.
Once the plant was set up, the first process simulations were made with water thus allowing GEA Niro Soavi's technical team to carry out complete and relevant operating tests on the Ariete NS5355 homogenizer in fully sterile conditions and to verify its performance at several pressures. Granarolo's active cooperation gave Mr. Salvarani, engineer and Project Manager at GEA Niro Soavi who closely worked with the client, the opportunity to test the unit potential so as to maximize the quality and optimize the degree of homogenization of the finished product. Ariete NS5355 successfully passed all detail tests carried out after some thousand hours of activity (i.e. dismounting and preventive monitoring of some components) thus showing GEA Niro Soavi's homogenizers' excellent reliability and unique quality.
Following the positive outcome first of water-based testing and then of pilot production with milk, Granarolo's plant shifted to milk processing beginning September 2010. Today Ariete NS5355 operates on average 20/22 hours continuously and is constantly monitored by production operators through an integrated control system with touch-screen interface transmitting data on the production progress. Thanks to the high efficiency homogenizing valve NanoVALVE™ - one of GEA Niro Soavi's exclusive patents – the same homogenization performance could be obtained with a 15% reduction in the pressure traditionally used by the client for this kind of product and consequently with a simultaneous energy saving.
The innovative self-diagnostic and remote control system will also allow GEA Niro Soavi's technicians to constantly monitor the unit's activity through the Internet and report preemptively any wear or maintenance needs.

A unique bundling of technology, a fruitful cooperation with Granarolo S.p.A. and GEA Niro Soavi's qualified personnel were the essential components that formed the success story for the company.
Granarolo – The Group
Granarolo is one of the main food producers in Italy and is divided into two distinct and synergic entities: a cooperative of milk producers (Granlatte) – operating in the agricultural sector and collecting the raw material – and a joint stock company (Granarolo S.p.A.) involved in transforming and marketing the finished product. Granarolo today features five production sites throughout Italy.

The Granarolo Group represents the most important milk production chain in Italy, the first fresh milk producer in the country and, following Yomo's acquisition in 2004, Granarolo is also Italy's most important yogurt producer.
The Granarolo Group has around 2000 employees, a 900 million euro turnover, 97 million euro EBITDA.