LOS ANGELES — As the only vertically-integrated beverage development, manufacturer, and marketing company in the United States, Power Brands has helped hundreds of beverage startups across the world actualize their unique drink visions.
With a new production facility opening in Los Angeles, Power Brands needed to obtain additional manufacturing equipment, including machinery to help adhere client’s product labels to beverage containers — i.e., equipment for shrink sleeve labeling.
Steam tunnels: an effective method for beverage labeling.
Steam tunnels are popular methods for shrink sleeve labeling owing to their low temperature settings (around 180°-200°F),
Another upshot of using a steam tunnel is that it can be utilized for diverse applications. To ensure client beverages are free from harmful microbes, Power Brands also needed equipment for pasteurization. A steam generator (disruptive steam boiler technology), with its heat treatment capacities, is an effective way to sterilize liquids, along with other smaller applications.
Power Brand needed 550 pounds of steam per hour, with a steam pressure of 80 pounds per square inch, gauge (psig). This steam needed to be very dry, to allow the labels to properly cohere to the containers. The boiler was going to be used every day starting at 4:30 in the morning. This meant that rapid and automatic startup capacities was crucial.
Clayton Industries’ Sigma-Fire SF50 Steam Generator 50 BHP with Low NOx FMB Burner, super economizer and once-through design met Power Brand’s specifications and was brought on board.
Clayton’s steam generators, unlike typical firetube steam boilers, utilize a once-through design where steam is created by using a positive displacement feedwater pump controlling water flow through a single helical coil tube. With this design, Clayton can fully modulate the water through the coil to match fuel and air ratios. The unit modulates up and down following desired steam-operating pressure. This enables Sigma-Fire to be highly efficient throughout the entire operating range, regardless of firing rate.
The Clayton Steam Generator (disruptive steam boiler technology), operates with low water volumes, which allows them to start-up from a cold start in minutes rather than hours. This low water content fully eliminates any potential of a steam or water explosion.
By utilizing a steam separator that uses high-velocity, fixed vain mechanical separation, the Sigma-Fire generator spins out excess moisture providing 99.5% quality steam to the process. The excess water is trapped back to the feedwater system saving btu’s. This method lowers blowdown rates. Sigma-Fire’s design pressures range from 15 psig to 500 psig (or in some cases, 3,000 psig).
Energy-efficiency of counter-flow design over firetube
Sigma-Fire’s counter-flow design inherently improves fuel efficiency over conventional firetube boilers, by at least 5%. And with the added economizer, this generator can utilize recovered flue gases to warm the boiler feedback water – decreasing the firing rates, and further maximizing the fuel-to-steam efficiency. And, because the Sigma-Fire generator spins out excess moisture, 99.5% dry steam is ensured at all times.
Established in 2006, Power Brands’ award-winning team of beverage industry experts supports global companies and startups in developing, producing, and marketing innovative beverage brands and products. Power Brands designs beverage packaging, formulates and develops beverages, manufactures and market tests these innovative products. The company operates multiple facilities in Southern California, and houses a state-of-the-art beverage science lab. Our recently opened pilot production facility is highly versatile: large enough to offer contract manufacturing on top of highly specialized production. Our distribution center houses brands for many of the leading food and beverage companies, and we service over 1,000 retail locations in Southern California, enabling us to market test any type of snack or beverage in any type of store format. A client simply comes to Power Brands with an idea for a beverage, and then their team of specialized experts help bring the client’s brand to life -- aiding them through every step of the design, production, and marketing process. For more information, visit https://www.powerbrands.us/