Olive oil is considered to be an ingredient that should be in every kitchen. But since its creation, it has been discovered to have beneficial qualities beyond culinary purposes, making it a widely versatile product.
To gain an edge in a fairly saturated market, you must implement reliable equipment. This includes integrating precise filter media, such as woven wire mesh, to help extract the oil from olives.
W.S. Tyler has helped weave the capabilities of woven wire mesh into dozens of industries for over 150 years. We strive to take the time and learn the inner workings of your process to best help you identify a solution that works.
With that, this article was written to help you under how woven wire mesh can benefit your olive oil production process. You will learn:
- What modern olive oil production looks like
- The definition of woven wire mesh
- How woven wire mesh fits modern olive oil production operations
- How much woven wire mesh costs
What Does the Olive Oil Production Process Look Like?
To produce high-quality olive oil, specific types of olives (depending on the intended flavor of the oil) must be harvested. The freshly harvested olives then undergo a washing process to remove unwanted debris, such as dirt and leaves.
The olives are then cascaded over a screen to remove some of the larger twigs, ensuring only olives proceed through the production line.
The olives are then ground almost immediately after being screened. This grinding process has become more heavily monitored over the years to ensure the most flavorful blend is achieved and works to create a pulp of ground olives.
The pulp is now taken to a centrifuge to extract the oil from the pulp.
At this point, the oil undergoes a quality control process to ensure it meets flavor standards. Once cleared, the olive oil will be transferred to storage tanks or undergo a second centrifugal filtration process before being placed in the tanks.
Regardless, any remaining particulates sink to the bottom of these tanks. When ready, the oil is bottled, labeled, and packed for shipment.
What Is Wire Mesh?
Woven wire mesh, or wire mesh for short, is a metal fabric created after a pre-determined amount of wires in the warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) become interwoven. To do so, a centuries-old weaving technique is used, forming various weave patterns that feature precise pore openings.
Now, before being woven, parameters such as weave pattern, wire diameter, mesh count, alloy, etc., are calculated to ensure maximum performance. You also have the ability to apply value-added services like heat treatment, welding, and forming to further enhance the capabilities of the mesh specification.
How Does Woven Wire Mesh Benefit the Olive Oil Production Process?
Modern olive oil production lines have incorporated centrifuge machines to deliver the solid-liquid separation needed to extract the oil from the olive pulp. These machines often employ centrifugal filters constructed from woven wire mesh and spin the pulp rapidly, forcing it against the sides of the woven wire mesh.
This centrifugal works to project the oil through the pores of the mesh, retaining the filter cake of solid olive matter. But why use woven wire mesh when there are other screening materials, such as perforated plate and expanded wire, on the market?
The most notable benefit of using wire mesh centrifugal filters is the fact that the surface of the wires is the only closed area of the media. This allows you to achieve greater throughput than similar screening media while maintaining superior filtration performance.
Additionally, woven wire mesh is constructed from a metallic alloy, primarily a stainless steel alloy. This translates to the media’s ability to withstand the tremendous centrifugal force applied during the filtration process, allowing wire mesh to deliver peak precision over prolonged use.
It should also be noted that, while known for its rigidity, woven wire mesh is extremely pliable. This means that you can bend, flex, mold, and otherwise form the orientation of your wire mesh to ensure it fits your centrifugal filter process.
How Much Does Woven Wire Mesh Cost?
When inquiring woven wire mesh that you can integrate into your olive oil production process, it is important to know the forms in which woven wire mesh comes in. You can purchase the filter media as industrial rolls, cut-to-size pieces, or prefabricated wire mesh components.
Naturally, each form factor carries its own cost parameters that will affect the overall cost of your wire mesh order.
For example, the following factors will impact the cost of both industrial rolls and cut-to-size pieces:
- Order Quantity
- Dimensions
- Mesh specification
- Value-added service requirements
- Compliance requirements
On the other hand, the cost of fabricated wire mesh components is affected by the following:
- Order Quantity
- The profile of the part
- Part components
- Mesh specification
- Layer configuration
- Value-added service requirements
- External fabrication requirements
- Labor
Regardless of how you purchase your mesh, the impact the weave pattern will have on cost should be noted. Filter cloth weave patterns, such as W.S. Tyler’s MINIMESH weaves, tend to cost more than traditional square weaves.
This is primarily because the weaving process used to produce filter cloth weave patterns is far more detail-oriented and labor-intensive than the process used to produce square weaves.
Best-In-Class Performance Starts With Understanding the Product
In order to produce high-quality, modern olive oil production lines incorporate centrifugal filter machines to separate the oils from the olive. This leaves you responsible for selecting the right screening media with the right specifications to ensure your operation is as efficient as possible.
Now, as you embark on the journey to high-performing woven wire mesh centrifugal filters, you should dedicate some time to learning the basics of the product. This will help you prepare for the conversations you will have, streamlining the process of getting a woven wire mesh solution in your hands.
With 150 years of wire weaving experience, W.S. Tyler is here to leverage the experiences we’ve had so we can help support you and all your separation, filtration, and screening endeavors.
To learn the foundational terminology surrounding the world of woven wire mesh, read the following article: