Flexible Impeller Pumps: Wineries, Distilleries, and Breweries

The flexible impeller pump (FIP) is popular for its affordability, its ability to pump solids, and its easiness to repair. These qualities make them popular in breweries, distilleries, and wineries.

How they work

Flexible impeller pumps have a food grade neoprene impeller that allows the pump to be both strong and gentle. Due to the eccentric shape of the pump housing, a vacuum is created on the suction side as the volume between the blades increases and causes the product suction and lift. As the rotor spins and the product is carried from the suction side to the discharge side the blades bend, reducing the volume between them and causing the discharge of the product. It is very efficient and gentle on the product.

Best Features

Hygienic flexible impeller pumps are especially useful where self-priming is required and are also very effective in pumping viscous or air-entrained food, brewing and wine products. They are also reversible and have a range of speeds. At lower speeds, they also handle delicate liquids very well owing to their gentle pumping action. Virtually any liquid with viscosity up to 20,000 cps can be pumped as long as there is chemical compatibility with the pump materials.

Capabilities Include:

• Immediate self-priming
• Handling a wide viscosity range
• Capable of transferring abrasive laden or air entrained liquids
• Able to transfer fluids with solids
• Pumps in either direction and can be mounted in any orientation
• Can drain even the last few ounces of liquid from a container

Brewing

Flexible impeller pumps are popular in breweries to pump mash-in-wort, syrups, yeast slurries and sugary liquids. Their ability to handle both viscous and non-viscous liquids makes them useful in any brewery. You can also pump in jams and berries for the fruity brews.

Distilling

Distilleries use flexible impeller pumps again to pump mash-in-wort and also because they can pump viscous materials, this pump is a workhorse that moves suspended solids without trouble. Unlike other pumps, the FIP can move suspended solids that are up to ⅓ of the size of the inlet.

Winery

The flexible impeller is a popular winery pump because it is a workhorse that can be used for a variety of purposes and needs. It is one of the few pumps that be used to cover almost all pump tasks in a winery including: wine transfer, must transfer, pumping pumice, bottling, CIP return, and transferring or racking out of barrels. It is one of the best all purpose winery pumps.

The flexible impeller pump is affordable for even the smallest of craft facilities and it is easy to troubleshoot and to find replacement pieces. It can perform a multitude of tasks from CIP to pumping product.