Botswana | Rapeseed oil filtration equipment upgrade ensures food safety and production stability

Project Background

A grain and oil processing company in Botswana has long been engaged in the production and refining of rapeseed oil. Its core filtration equipment is an old-fashioned cast iron filter press. As the equipment has aged, two serious problems have gradually emerged in production, directly affecting product quality and operational stability. 

On the one hand, the cast iron material suffers severe corrosion after prolonged contact with rapeseed oil and process moisture, which not only reduces the service life of the equipment but also poses a food safety risk of rust entering the oil and contaminating the product. On the other hand, the equipment uses a manual hydraulic cylinder clamping method, which is cumbersome to operate and difficult to control stably, resulting in poor filter plate sealing, frequent leakage, waste of raw materials, and increased burden on workshop cleaning and maintenance.

To eliminate food safety hazards, improve production stability, and reduce operational risks, the company decided to systematically upgrade its existing filter press system.

Technical Solution

After assessing the on-site conditions, our technical team developed a targeted upgrade plan for the client that balanced food safety and equipment reliability. This plan, specifically for the stainless steel filter press, included three core upgrades:

1. Filter assembly upgrade:

The original cast iron filter plate has been replaced with a food-grade PP filter plate, which has excellent corrosion resistance and chemical stability, completely eliminating the risk of rust and ensuring that rapeseed oil is not secondary contaminated during the filtration process.

2. Upgraded Body Protection:

The equipment frame is covered with a stainless steel structure, which effectively isolates the humid environment from the metal body, further improving the corrosion resistance of the whole machine, while meeting the hygiene and cleanliness requirements of food processing equipment.

3. Upgraded clamping system:

The original manual hydraulic cylinder clamping method has been upgraded to an automatic hydraulic clamping system, which can precisely control the clamping pressure, so that the filter plate is subjected to uniform force and the seal is reliable, fundamentally eliminating the leakage problem and significantly reducing the intensity of manual operation.

This upgrade solution, while retaining the original equipment structure, achieves a comprehensive improvement in key performance aspects, minimizing modification costs and downtime.

Customer Feedback

After the upgrade, the customer's filtration system showed significant improvements in operational stability and hygiene.

The PP filter plates and stainless steel protective structure effectively solved the equipment corrosion problem, ensuring that rapeseed oil remained food-grade safe throughout the filtration process. The hydraulic clamping system eliminated the long-standing leakage problem, making the filtration process cleaner, more stable, and more efficient.

The customer stated that the upgrade not only extended the equipment's lifespan but also significantly reduced maintenance frequency and production losses, enabling the company to achieve higher production efficiency and more reliable food safety guarantees. This project has also become an important reference example for their subsequent production line optimization.