Givaudan is an international creator of fragrances and food flavors with three sites in France at Paris, Argenteuil, and Lyon. The key activities of Givaudan, founded in 1780 under the name Roure, are the creation and development of perfumes and fine fragrances, the manufacture and sale of new molecules and synthetic products, and the creation and development of food flavors. Usually referred to as the famous palette, Givaudan’s raw materials available to the perfume/fragrance industry are continually evolving. Around 1000 raw materials are commonly used but 2000 are produced in total and used for older fragrances on the market. Although functional fragrances—i.e. those used in deodorants, shampoos, detergents, etc.—are also produced at the site, the Argenteuil facility is dedicated to the production of top of the range, fine fragrances. For these fine fragrances, natural materials are never replaced by synthetic materials due to the very specific olfactory characteristics of natural products. Concentrate is manufactured in the mixing room according to formulas established by perfumers and selected by clients. The site uses many natural materials from various suppliers. The first step is to analyze the quality of these raw materials. As Serge Lemaitre, Quality Control Manager at Argenteuil, explains, “We check quality and consistency. To do this we use three different types of control: analytical, chromatographic, and olfactory. Although controlling the olfactory aspects is very important in terms of our clients brief, the analytical aspects are also vital. We have to check our raw materials in order to ensure we obtain concentrates with consistent color, appearance, and viscosity as well as fragrance.”
Greifensee, Zurich -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2010 -- Quality Control System
Givaudan monitors its production closely. The quality control laboratory is directly linked with perfume creation as it ensures that large-scale manufacture corresponds to the sample originally selected by the client. The initial control is carried out through comparisons with this reference sample. Controls are then carried out on samples taken four times per day in order to check for the slightest discrepancy. Givaudan needs to know if any discrepancies are due to a production anomaly or inherent in the raw materials, which can vary (as a function of the crop, the source, the year, etc.)
Every ingredient is weighed out by an operator who then records the data in a computer program, which allows Givaudan to check every batch of raw material that has been used in each production. Since the system’s bottleneck occurs in the olfactory control (around six hours are needed for a concentrate to evaporate in order to check the base notes) the quality control laboratory must receive these samples as quickly as possible. The product is dispatched from the company within 24 hours, once released by quality control, in order to comply with a delivery period of five days.
METTLER TOLEDO Solution Overcomes Bottleneck
For a typical sample, the product is dissolved in a suitable solvent, and then heated to reflux temperature for a given time in the presence of potassium hydroxide.
Givaudan was looking to automate this process. However, a potential problem in automating the titrator and automatic sample changer was the standard 29/32 round bottomed, necked flask type of recipients used for heating the samples to reflux temperature. With this arrangement, the sample had to be decanted into a titration beaker, resulting in inaccuracies, loss of time, and greater material and solvent consumption.
Serge Lemaitre comments that: “For me, it was imperative that we changed our titrator because our old one did not have a traceable function, which is required by the ISO 9000 Standard. We also wanted a system with an automatic sample changer, then samples can be analyzed independently by the automatic titrator and technicians are free to concentrate on other work.” The saponification index (the number of mg of potassium hydroxide consumed per gram of sample analyzed) is a measurement of the free and esterified acid content of fats, oils, and fatty acids. Only certain raw materials are analyzed in this way: synthetic products, liquids, pastes, resinous materials, absolutes, and natural products.
Givaudan worked with METTLER TOLEDO to design a solution that replaced the flasks used for manual analysis by COD tubes. The sample could now be directly weighed into the tube before the introduction of the solvent and potassium hydroxide, heated and then cooled. The tube is then placed in the automatic sample changer. The METTLER TOLEDO FL53 then only has to assay the fraction of potassium hydroxide not consumed and calculate the saponification index. Serge Lemaitre concludes that, “The DL53, coupled with the Rondo 60 automatic sample changer, have given us more flexibility and increased process speed. We can now release batches much more quickly.”
http://www.mt.com/titration