Case study: Upgrading from a resin tank to an electropolished stainless tank
Challenge
- An aging resin tank: years of use had left it hardened, cracked, and scratched, with grime settling into the scratches and dents.
- Staining and cleaning burden: colorant soaked into the resin, and the tank needed antibacterial treatment and heavier cleaning to keep up.
- An old propeller mixer that “misbehaved”: running it hard sent liquid splashing over the sides, so they couldn’t mix as aggressively as they needed to.
Solution
- Upgrading to an electropolished stainless tank: an interior finish that resists buildup and contamination.
- Adopting a Bernoulli-flow mixer: confirmed on the actual machine to run hard without splashing, mixing evenly without disturbing the surface.
- Keeping the same 500L capacity: a smooth, drop-in replacement with no need to change the batch size.
Expected Results
- Better cleanability and sanitary performance: solving the resin tank’s core weakness of grime settling into scratches.
- No more color staining: without colorant soaking into the surface, cleaning becomes far less work.
- Room to expand into more product lines: better cleanability should make it easier to manufacture a wider range of products.
Customer profile: A manufacturer of deodorizing and antibacterial products, built around natural-origin ingredients with a focus on balancing effectiveness and safety.
The Process, and the Problem Before the Upgrade
The newly installed equipment is a 500-liter stainless mixing tank fitted with a Bernoulli-flow mixer, with an electropolished interior finish. It’s used to prepare the raw materials that go into the company’s deodorizing products.
Before this upgrade, the company used a resin tank. Over years of use, the resin hardened, cracked, and picked up scratches on the interior. Grime worked its way into those scratches and dents, which they managed by relying on antibacterial agents. On top of that, colored products containing colorant would stain the resin itself, and as the material degraded, cleaning only got more time-consuming.
The old mixer was a simple propeller type. Run it hard, and the liquid surface would churn and splash over the sides — which meant they always had to hold back on mixing intensity, and handle the equipment carefully.
Behind the Decision to Upgrade
MONOVATE had already supplied this customer with boiler equipment and a temperature-controlled tank around five years earlier, and the idea of eventually replacing the resin tank had been on their minds ever since. Budget constraints kept pushing the decision back, until this year, when they finally moved forward.
For the mixer, MONOVATE’s sales team recommended a Bernoulli-flow mixer as a versatile, all-purpose choice. Seeing it run in person — and confirming that the liquid surface stayed calm even at speed — was enough to convince them. Because a Bernoulli-flow mixer can run fast without splashing, it may also come in handy down the line if they need to work with ingredients that are harder to dissolve.
MONOVATE also proposed a larger 1,000-liter tank, but the customer opted to keep the original 500-liter capacity, allowing for a straightforward, drop-in replacement without changing their batch sizes. For the material finish, they chose an electropolished interior — a high-grade surface treatment that uses electrical current to smooth the surface at a microscopic level, reducing residue buildup — specifically to improve sanitary performance and resist grime.
What They’re Expecting from the New Equipment
With stainless steel — and an electropolished finish on top of that — they expect far less risk of grime working its way into scratches, the way it did with resin. Without colorant soaking into the surface anymore, cleaning should get considerably easier.
Because stainless cleans more thoroughly, they also expect improved cleanability to open the door to manufacturing a wider range of products on the same equipment.
What’s Next
If this first stainless tank performs well, the plan is to keep converting more equipment to stainless over time, budget permitting. Capital investment decisions like this haven’t always been easy to commit to — which is exactly why they’re taking the approach of installing one unit first, confirming it works, and then expanding gradually from there.
Editor’s note: It genuinely meant a lot to us that this customer thought of MONOVATE again for this upgrade, five years after our first project together. Picturing how much more comfortable day-to-day work will feel with better cleanability and mixing performance made us feel invested in the outcome ourselves. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us during such a busy IQOQ schedule.
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