Equipment
DPS manufactures processing tanks, fermentation tanks, and storage vessels up to 12,000 gallons — designed, fabricated, and integrated by the same engineering team that builds your entire process system. When your tank supplier is also your process engineer, piping contractor, and controls integrator, nothing falls between scopes.
Discuss Your Equipment Requirements
DPS · Tanks & Vessels
Equipment Overview
Every food and beverage processing facility depends on vessels that hold, heat, cool, ferment, blend, or store product under exacting conditions. DPS manufactures a full range of custom stainless steel tanks and vessels — from 50-gallon batching tanks to 12,000-gallon fermentation and storage vessels — using 304 and 316L stainless steel built to ASME and 3-A Sanitary Standards. Unlike commodity tank suppliers, DPS engineers every vessel around your specific process parameters: flow rates, temperature profiles, CIP circuit compatibility, spatial constraints, and upstream/downstream equipment interfaces. The result is a tank that arrives ready to integrate — not a tank that forces your piping crew to improvise.
In-house manufacturing is central to the DPS Design-Build-Manage model. When the same engineering team that designs your process flow also specifies and fabricates the vessels within that flow, tolerance stackups shrink, lead times compress, and commissioning risk drops. This single-source approach means your fermentation tanks, bright tanks, mixing vessels, and holding tanks share consistent weld quality, surface finish standards, and documentation — all traceable to one accountable partner. For operations managers and plant engineers running FDA- and USDA-regulated facilities across the United States, that traceability is not a convenience. It is a compliance requirement.
Applications & Industries
Cooking kettles are the production backbone for tomato-based sauces, vinaigrettes, hot sauces, cheese sauces, and shelf-stable marinades. DPS specifies jacket capacity, agitator geometry, and steam flow rates to hit precise cook temperatures and hold times required by each product’s scheduled process, while high-shear agitation options ensure emulsion stability and particle-size consistency across batches ranging from pilot scale to full production volumes.
Chunked-ingredient products such as soups and stews demand gentle agitation that maintains piece integrity while preventing scorching on the heat-transfer surface. DPS kettles for prepared foods applications incorporate slow-speed sweep agitators with PTFE scraper blades, zoned jacket heating to prevent localized hot spots, and large-diameter bottom outlets that discharge whole vegetable and protein pieces without damage.
From pasteurized fluid milk bases and cultured products to cheese sauce, yogurt premixes, and ice cream bases, dairy applications require kettle specifications that satisfy both thermal performance and 3-A Sanitary Standards. DPS builds dairy kettles with electropolished product-contact surfaces, sanitary agitator shaft seals, CIP-ready nozzle configurations, and temperature instrumentation validated for HACCP critical control point monitoring.
Sugar syrups, caramel, toffee, and fruit fillings require precise temperature ramping to achieve target Brix concentrations without scorching or crystallization. DPS configures cooking kettles for confectionery with high-pressure jacket ratings for rapid heat delivery, programmable multi-stage cook profiles, and scrape-surface agitation that keeps viscous product moving continuously across the heated wall.
Contract manufacturers running dozens of SKUs across multiple product categories need cooking kettles that change over rapidly and document every batch electronically for multi-standard audit compliance. DPS builds multi-recipe automation into the kettle’s PLC and SCADA architecture, enabling push-button recipe selection, automatic CIP sequencing between product changeovers, and electronic batch records that satisfy SQF, BRC, and retailer-specific food safety audit requirements simultaneously.
System Specifications
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| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Capacity Range | 50 gallons to 12,000 gallons; custom sizes engineered to facility footprint and batch volume requirements |
| Material of Construction | 304 and 316L stainless steel standard; specialty alloys available on request for high-acidity, high-salinity, or pharmaceutical-adjacent applications |
| Surface Finish | Interior finish to ≤ 32 Ra (microinch) standard for sanitary food-contact applications; electropolish to ≤ 20 Ra available for dairy, aseptic, and cleanroom environments |
| Construction & Welding Standards | ASME-code fabrication available; all sanitary welds per AWS D18.1; 3-A Sanitary Standards compliant designs; borescope weld inspection documentation provided |
| Jacket & Insulation Options | Dimple jackets, half-pipe coils, and full conventional jackets for heating/cooling; polyurethane foam or mineral wool insulation with stainless cladding |
| Vessel Types | Fermentation tanks, brite tanks, storage vessels, mixing/blending tanks, CIP solution tanks, batch processing tanks, hot/cold liquor tanks, ingredient holding vessels, and tumblers/marination vessels |
| Nozzle & Port Configuration | All nozzle locations, sizes (Tri-Clamp standard), and orientations custom-specified per process P&ID; provisions for temperature probes, pressure transmitters, level sensors, sample valves, and CIP spray devices included |
| Agitation & Mixing | Top-mount, side-mount, or bottom-entry agitator mounting pads and drive provisions engineered to process viscosity and shear requirements; variable-speed drive integration supported |
| Regulatory Compliance | Designed and documented for FDA 21 CFR Part 117, USDA-FSIS, SQF, BRC, and 3-A Sanitary Standards; full material traceability and weld documentation packages included |
| Integration & Controls Readiness | All vessels delivered with instrumentation provisions mapped to DPS control system architecture; PLC/SCADA-ready wiring provisions and I/O tagging coordinated with automation scope |
| Delivery Coverage | All 50 U.S. states and Canada; domestic fabrication with project-coordinated delivery scheduling to align with installation timeline |
Project Planning Guide
Sanitary tanks and vessels must work across production, cleaning, maintenance, and future change. DPS connects vessel sizing and fabrication to product behavior, residence time, agitation, heating or cooling, access, drainage, instrumentation, and the surrounding process system.
Separate gross, working, minimum, and usable volume. Account for surge, foam, headspace, hold time, batching tolerances, transfer losses, and the production schedule. Confirm whether the vessel stores, blends, heats, cools, ferments, or feeds another operation.
Specify product-contact materials, surface finish, weld quality, insulation, jacket duty, manways, spray devices, bottom outlets, supports, platforms, and maintenance access. Confirm drainage and inspection requirements before the tank is detailed.
Map process, utility, CIP, instrumentation, and electrical connections against the layout and installation sequence. The equipment manufacturing and supply guide helps establish vendor drawing reviews and inspection gates; installation and integration covers readiness and commissioning.
A vessel is only useful when its working volume and interfaces match the process it must support.
Project Verification Questions
Lead times depend on vessel complexity, capacity, and current fabrication queue. For standard-configuration vessels in the 50 to 5,000 gallon range, typical lead times run eight to twelve weeks from engineering approval to delivery. Larger or highly customized vessels — including those with complex jacket designs, specialty alloys, or extensive instrumentation provisions — may require twelve to sixteen weeks. Because DPS coordinates fabrication scheduling with the broader project construction timeline, vessels arrive when the facility is ready for installation, not before and not after.
Yes. Our engineering team conducts field surveys and reviews existing P&IDs, equipment data sheets, and as-built conditions to design new vessels that integrate dimensionally and functionally with your current process infrastructure. Nozzle orientations, port heights, support leg configurations, and piping connections are all specified to match your existing layout so the new vessel connects without costly field modifications.
Our current manufacturing envelope covers vessels up to 12,000 gallons. For projects requiring larger capacity, DPS engineers the specification and manages procurement from vetted domestic fabrication partners within our national contractor network, maintaining the same engineering oversight, quality documentation, and integration accountability as our in-house builds. Regardless of vessel size, DPS owns the process design and installation scope — so system integration quality never depends on a third party’s interpretation of our drawings.
Every vessel ships with instrumentation provisions — thermowells, pressure ports, level sensor mounts, flow meter connections — pre-located and tagged to match the DPS controls architecture specified during process engineering. When DPS provides both the tank and the automation scope, the PLC I/O list, SCADA tag database, and recipe management configuration are built around the exact hardware installed on the vessel. This eliminates the field-wiring guesswork that plagues projects where tanks and controls come from different vendors.
Every DPS vessel ships with a complete documentation package: material certifications (mill certs) with full traceability, weld maps and inspection records, surface finish verification, dimensional inspection reports, and hydrostatic or pneumatic test documentation as applicable. For facilities operating under USDA-FSIS jurisdiction, SQF, or BRC audit programs, DPS provides compliance narratives and design rationale documents that directly support your audit evidence requirements. All documentation is formatted for easy insertion into your facility’s food safety management system.
Connect Planning With Production
Compare these decisions with the relevant industry requirements and published project examples. A case describes its own scope and outcome, not a performance commitment for a different facility.
Industry Requirements
DPS designs dairy beverage production lines for flavored milk, protein drinks, and yogurt, integrating thermal processing, blending, filling, CIP, and controls.
Review Deliverables for Dairy-Based BeveragesIndustry Requirements
DPS engineers juice and functional beverage facilities with coordinated ingredient handling, batching, thermal or HPP processing, filling, CIP, and automation.
Review Deliverables for Juice & Functional BeveragesPublished Case
DPS upgraded Albertsons’ CIP system and air farm across three planned outages of under four hours, on budget and with zero unplanned downtime.
Review Project ContextConnect The Next Decision
Solution
Translate product and production requirements into a coordinated process design, with clear interfaces between equipment, utilities, sanitation, and controls.
Key decision: Establish the operating requirements before selecting equipment or freezing the layout.
Planning Checklist for Process Engineering & DesignSolution
Connect equipment selection and fabrication to the process basis, sanitary requirements, installation interfaces, and long-term maintainability before a vessel or skid reaches your plant.
Key decision: Confirm the equipment duty, interfaces, and acceptance basis before releasing fabrication or purchase orders.
Planning Checklist for Equipment Manufacturing & SupplySolution
Turn separately supplied equipment and infrastructure into a coordinated production system through installation planning, interface checks, commissioning, and handover.
Key decision: Establish what is ready to install, what is ready to test, and what is ready to operate.
Planning Checklist for Installation & System IntegrationIntegrated Equipment Delivery
Share your product mix, capacity targets, current constraints, and project timeline. Start a conversation about the scope and decisions your project needs.
Discuss your engineering, equipment, or facility plans with the DPS team.
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