One of Australia’s largest independent manufacturers
of winery equipment has specified Lenze’s IP65 SMV inverter drives to power a range of portable wine pumps used to fill and empty wine barrels without disturbing the sediment.
A sealed IP65 drive was needed for this application due to the outdoor working environment, and also the nature of the wine. The manufacturer wanted to avoid using stainless steel bodied drives but had found that the acidic wine would eat away the plastic on standard drives. Not only did
the SMV provide the important ingress and UV protection needed, but the polycarbonate body is virtually impervious to the corrosive fruit acids in the wine.
When pumping wine into and out of a barrel it is important to keep a constant, smooth flow to avoid stirring up the sediment at the bottom and compromising the quality of the wine. Huge wine savings can be achieved – in excess of one litre per barrel when you get this process correct. Here, the SMV provides extremely good low speed torque performance which creates a smooth start up acceleration, solving the problem.
According to the company, set-up and operation were also extremely easy. With the Lenze drive, a pre-installed PID loop designed specifically for ease of use in pumping applications meant that, once the drive was up to speed, it would maintain a constant flow and pressure. This allows fine control of the pump so that the speed range can be set very precisely, balancing the need to deliver a fast turnover of barrels while making sure the product is not wasted by causing sediment to be disturbed.
The wine barrel filling and emptying pump units are available in different models to suit wineries with as little as 100 or as many as 50,000 barrels to empty.
With both the product and the inverter being reliable, the pump manufacturer is comfortable to advertise a fast return on investment, quoting savings over £6000 per annum – per 500 barrels, and
a significant increase in productivity, filling 500 or emptying 400 barrels in an eight-hour shift with one operator.
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