3T/H Pet Food Extruder in Italy

Project background

With the continued rise in the trend of pet humanization in Europe, the market demand for functional pet food has surged. The customer's original single-screw pet feed extruder has been in use for 7 consecutive years and faces three severe challenges:

• First, the customer's existing pet feed extruder has a serious lack of production capacity. The nominal 2.5 tons/hour extruder can actually only maintain an output of 1.8 tons/hour, which cannot meet the large orders from the newly obtained German chain pet stores.
• Second, the product form is single, and it can only produce basic cylindrical particles, which makes it difficult to achieve the special-shaped particle design required by the marketing department, such as bone-shaped and star-shaped particles.
• Most importantly, the equipment is energy inefficient, with electricity consumption of up to 85 kWh per ton of product, which does not comply with the upcoming EU Ecodesign 2023 energy efficiency regulations and faces the risk of being eliminated.

Customer demand analysis

The technical director of the customer company clarified the key requirements to RICH engineers at the project kick-off meeting.

1. In terms of production capacity, the new pet food extruder in Italy must stably reach the designed output of 3 tons/hour and be able to adapt to 5-6 product changes per month, including rapid conversion of particles of different shapes and sizes. Production flexibility is crucial to meet their "small batch, multiple varieties" market strategy.
2. Higher standards are set for product quality. The adjustable range of particle expansion is required to reach 1.3-1.8g/cm³ to meet the differentiated needs of puppy food (requiring low density for easy digestion) and adult dog food (requiring high density to extend chewing time). Special emphasis is placed on the protection of heat-sensitive nutrients, such as the added probiotics need to maintain a survival rate of more than 80% during processing, which places strict requirements on temperature control.
3. The degree of intelligence is another key consideration. The customer hopes that the equipment will be equipped with an advanced recipe memory system that can store at least 50 sets of process parameters and shorten the debugging time when switching products from the current 2 hours to less than 30 minutes. This is of strategic significance for its flexible production and rapid response to changes in market demand.

Raw material system and product characteristics

The pet food extruder in Italy project adopts a typical Italian high-end dog food formula system and adheres to the "human edible grade" raw material standard. Animal protein mainly uses lamb raised in the Apennines (accounting for 25%) and fresh marine fish from the Adriatic Sea (12%).

These raw materials are immediately processed after being transported to the factory through a -18℃ cold chain. Plant ingredients use organic brown rice (18%), a specialty of the Piedmont region, and chickpeas (10%) grown in Sicily's volcanic soil to ensure that there are no pesticide residues.

Functional additives reflect its product characteristics. Including probiotic complexes imported from France (2%), joint health ingredients (glucosamine and chondroitin) provided by Switzerland, and locally purchased rosemary extracts as natural antioxidants.

All liquid additives are evenly mixed using a high-pressure spray system imported from Germany. The moisture content of the mixed materials is precisely controlled within the golden range of 22-24%.

The customer produces three categories of dog food products:

1. Puppy food uses 8mm×5mm small bone-shaped particles, with a density controlled at 1.35-1.45g/cm³, and a 15% open porosity on the surface to enhance palatability.
2. Adult dog food uses 12mm diameter gear-shaped particles, with a density increased to 1.6-1.7g/cm³ and a hardness standard set at 50-60 Newtons, effectively preventing dogs from gulping down food.
3. The most special is the functional health food series, which requires more than 80% of the probiotic activity to be completely retained inside the particles, which requires the support of a unique low-temperature extrusion process.

Technical advantages of RICHI pet food extruder in Italy

After a comprehensive evaluation of mainstream European suppliers, the customer finally chose RICHI's twin-screw pet food extrusion machine. This decision was based on five core technical advantages:

The innovative die system completely solves the pain point of single product form. The patented quick-change die device shortens the mold replacement time from the industry average of 45 minutes to 8 minutes. The unique 3D flow channel design ensures that every detail of the special-shaped particles is perfectly formed, and the dynamic pressure compensation technology eliminates the common problem of uneven end discharge of traditional molds.

The temperature control system demonstrates excellent accuracy. It adopts a seven-stage independent temperature control zone design, and each temperature zone is equipped with a triple temperature sensor to achieve a temperature control accuracy of ±1°C.

The energy efficiency performance is particularly outstanding. By optimizing the screw combination design and adopting IE4 ultra-high energy-efficient motors, the equipment's power consumption per ton is reduced to 62 kWh, which is 27% energy-saving than the original equipment. The heat recovery system can recover 30% of the waste heat from the exhaust gas for preheating raw materials, reducing natural gas consumption by 12,000 cubic meters per year. These features make it easy for the equipment to meet the EU's latest ERP III energy efficiency standards.

Project implementation and market results

The installation and commissioning process of the new equipment took 1 week, and our engineering team carried out more than ten adaptive modifications to the customer's existing production line. The steam system interface was especially optimized so that the new equipment can perfectly match the customer's existing 0.8 tons/hour steam boiler.

An intelligent buffer bin was installed at the connection of the back-end process to solve the temporary mismatch problem caused by the difference in production capacity between the new and old equipment.

The operating data after nine months of production is exciting. The average hourly output is stable at 3.15 tons, which is 73% higher than the old equipment. The product switching time is shortened to 25 minutes, and the production efficiency is increased by 40%.

What satisfies customers most is the energy consumption performance, with electricity consumption per ton reduced to 62 kWh, saving about 45,000 euros in energy costs per year. In terms of product quality, the particle shape qualification rate reached 99.2%, and the probiotic survival rate was stable in the range of 82-85%.

If you are interested in this pet food extruder in Italy project, want to know more about the equipment, watch the operation video, feel free to contact RICHI MACHINERY!