At Highland Equipment, we specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of sanitary stainless steel equipment—ranging from individual units to complete turnkey process systems—for North American customers. In addition to our equipment solutions, we offer a variety of spares and replacement pumps, valves, gaskets, and fitting components for new and existing processing units. Below we provide an overview of our product solution capabilities. 

Turnkey System Solutions at Highland Equipment

Equipped with over 45 years of industry experience and extensive manufacturing resources, the team at Highland Equipment has the knowledge and skills to design and deliver high-quality stainless steel equipment solutions for customers in a wide range of sanitary industries, including cannabis, cosmetics, dairy, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical. We offer a full range of project support services—from equipment engineering, design and manufacturing to systems integration and installation to long-term servicing—which allows us to see a project through from start to finish. 

Our core product specializations include stainless steel tanks and pressure vessels; blenders, mixers, and agitators; clean-in-place (CIP) systems; and piping systems, all of which are custom designed and manufactured to customer specifications and standards. Our comprehensive manufacturing capabilities—including CAD design and engineering, orbital welding, and other specialty techniques—enable us to produce high-quality equipment suitable for use in any sanitary application. We also supply spare and replacement components for this equipment as needed.

Stainless Steel Tanks & Pressure Vessels

Stainless steel is widely used in building and construction projects for its intrinsic flexibility, ease-of-use, thermal stability, and—primarily—corrosion resistance. These qualities make it ideal for use in the sanitary process equipment industry in the fabrication of tanks,  pressure vessels, piping and skidded systems.

At Highland Equipment, we offer stainless steel tanks in cylindrical and rectangular configurations, both of which come with options for heat transfer capabilities and/or integrated mixing and other specialty components to accommodate unique processing needs. Our stainless steel tank offerings include:

  • Atmospheric storage tanks: These tanks are used to store materials at atmospheric pressure. They are custom designed and manufactured to accommodate different products, process requirements, and storage capacities. 
  • Jacketed heating/cooling mixing tanks: These tanks are used to store materials that require specific temperature conditions, which they accomplish by circulating heating or cooling fluid around the outer wall to facilitate heat transfer from the product to the inner wall or vice versa. 
  • Aseptic mixing and holding tanks: These tanks are used to blend liquids, dissolve solids, and create emulsions. They are available in variations that conform with food and pharmaceutical industry standards and codes. 

Our stainless steel pressure vessels are carefully designed and constructed to safely hold gaseous or liquid materials at lower or higher pressures than the surrounding environment, depending on the requirements and restrictions of the intended application. They are available in storage-only and mix/agitation variations and, if needed, can be equipped with a jacket for heating/cooling operations. They are also suitable for use as secondary containment vessels for critical process materials. 

Stainless Steel Mixers & Blenders

In sanitary process blending, mixing, and agitating operations, one of the key concerns is the inability of the processing equipment to combine materials of low or high viscosities. As such, it is important to invest in high-quality equipment that can effectively and efficiently blend, mix, or agitate materials regardless of their viscosity. 

Our stainless steel blenders, mixers, and agitators are engineered to provide reliable processing performance for materials with a wide range of viscosities. They are available in the following variations:

    • Ribbon: A ribbon blender/mixer/agitator consists of a U-shaped horizontal trough with a set of spiral agitators that rotate in opposite directions. This motion forces material to move laterally and radially, allowing for more thorough blending/mixing/agitation operations. 
    • Counter Rotating: A paddle blender/mixer/agitator operates similarly to a ribbon blender, except it uses a paddle instead of a set of helical agitators. This design difference forces material to move in radially and in opposite lateral directions. 
  • Scrape Surface: Similar to anchor mixers, scraping agitators (scrape surface, swept surface) are distinguished by the scraper blades are designed to scrape the walls at slow speed, creating radial flow with medium-high shear.
  • High Shear: Normally used to emulsify or homogenize multiple products from powder wetting to thickening, removing agglomerations or breaking down solids. Several options are available to provide you a desired product consistency.

Clean-in-Place (C.I.P) Systems

As suggested by the name, a clean-in-place (CIP) system is used to clean the interior of process equipment—e.g., machinery, vessels, and pipes—without having to disassemble the entire system. It utilizes a combination of heat, water, and cleaning chemicals to achieve and maintain sanitary conditions in critical processing environments. This ability is essential for many industries that must abide by strict sanitation standards for their operations, such as cosmetics manufacturing, food and beverage processing, and pharmaceutical production. 

At Highland Equipment, we offer CIP systems in small to large sizes, depending on the facility’s equipment setup. They are available as part of complete processing system solutions or add-ons to existing equipment.  

Piping Installation & Design

In addition to tanks and pressure vessels, blenders, mixers, and agitators, and CIP systems, we offer design, fabrication, installation, and servicing capabilities for process piping. By maintaining control over the manufacture of the entire system—from processing unit to piping—we can better ensure the quality and reliability of the final solution. 

All of our piping system solutions comply with the necessary industry standards and codes: 

  • ASME B31.1 Power Piping Code
  • ASME B31.3 Process Piping Code
  • ASME BPV Code Section VIII Division 1
  • CSA-B51 Boiler, Pressure Vessel and Pressure Piping Code

Customers can be further assured of the quality of our operations by our memberships in numerous contractor management and quality assurance organizations, including:

  • ISNetworld (since September 6, 2013)
  • Cognibox (since November 12, 2014)
  • Avetta, formerly PICS (since May 8, 2015)
  • ContractorCheck (since February 3, 2016)
  • Browz (since March 15, 2017)

Pumps, Valves, Gaskets, & Fittings

We keep a broad selection of pumps, valves, gaskets, and fittings to serve as spare and replacement components for our sanitary stainless steel process equipment and systems.

Pumps

We stock a variety of pumps from different manufacturers so we can provide customers with the right pump for their applications. The types we offer include:

  • Centrifugal
  • Positive displacement
  • Progressive cavity

Valves

Valves play a vital role in fluid systems; they regulate the flow of materials by partially or fully opening and closing passages, ensuring the system achieves and maintains the proper flow conditions for effective and efficient operation. The sanitary valves we can supply are: 

  • Air eliminator
  • Aseptic
  • Ball
  • Butterfly
  • Check
  • Diaphragm 
  • Mix proof
  • Modulating 
  • Plug
  • Pressure relief 
  • Sample
  • Seat 
  • Tank bottom outlet

Gaskets 

Gaskets stop critical fluids from leaking out of processing equipment and contaminants from leaking into processing equipment. They come in many shapes, sizes, and materials to suit different systems and applications. We provide the following sanitary gaskets: 

  • Acme 
  • Bevel seat
  • DIN/SMS 
  • Flat face 
  • I-line 
  • Manway door
  • Orifice plate 
  • Screen
  • Tri-clamp

Fittings

Fittings create connections between pipes, tubes, hoses, and other processing equipment components. In addition to maintaining an inventory of fittings from various manufacturers to accommodate a variety of customer needs, we also have the ability to perform in-field customization on any fitting as needed so we can handle non-standard piping installations. Our fitting offerings include: 

  • Biopharmaceutical
  • Camlock
  • DIN/SMS
  • I-line 
  • Pipe
  • Sanitary ACME
  • Sanitary butt weld
  • Sanitary tri-clamp
  • SCH5

Contact the Experts at Highland Equipment for Your Sanitary Processing Equipment Needs

In sanitary processing facilities, the quality of the processing equipment significantly affects the ability of facility workers to achieve and maintain clean and consistent working conditions. As such, it is essential to partner with a reputable supplier of superior sanitary processing solutions. 

At Highland Equipment, we have extensive experience providing sanitary stainless steel processing solutions for the brewery, cannabis, cosmetic, dairy, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. Our customer-centric approach ensures we design and engineer systems tailored to each customer’s unique specifications and standards. For additional information about our product solutions, contact us or request a quote today.