Sanitary Bulk Material Handling Equipment Cleanability: Value, Risk & Outcome
Can a typical, industrial bulk material handling system in a sanitary processing operation be thoroughly cleaned, even to the microbial level? Probably. But, with every cleaning event of a process-inappropriate bulk material handling system comes increased costs for labor, consumables (such as detergents and water), and energy. And, more importantly, with hard-to-clean equipment in sanitary applications comes a greater risk for inspection failure and product contamination. This post, the third in a series (Part 1 and Part 2) regarding sanitary bulk material handling equipment, will address several structural design features to look for in the construction of application-specific, sanitary bulk material handling equipment. To proactively specify these cleanability design features into sanitary bulk material handling equipment will reduce the costs and time of cleaning events, will aid in improving validation and inspection outcomes, and will ensure optimal compliance contribution (OCC).
Continuous weld seams are ground to a No. 4 finish, hand-burnished to eliminate pits, dimples, and crevices.
• Continuous-weld seams, ground smooth to a No. 4 finish: Weld seams, particularly in product contact areas and adjacent areas, must be free of pits, dimples, and crevices that could harbor contaminants such as material residue, microbes, and allergens. In addition to the No. 4 finish, hand-burnished weld seams will improve gross soil removal and resistance to microbial build-up during operation and cleaning.
Non-obstructing raceway contains unbundled utility lines; reduces material build-up, eases cleaning, inspection.
• Unbundled Utility Lines and Hoses: Counter to the typical, industrial machine design philosophy, the utility lines and hoses should be left unbundled. Unbundled utilities will minimize the accumulation of food, dirt, or other organic matter; and therefore reduce the opportunity for growth of microorganisms. Unbundled does not mean uncontrolled. A non-obstructive raceway contains the utility lines and hoses and enables fast and thorough cleaning, promotes material release, eliminates re-cleaning, and aids validation and inspection.
• Laser-cut, Single-plate Sideframe Construction: Typical, industrial machine design often builds substructures using square-tube framework. However, inherent with square-tube construction is the significant number of internal angles, corners, and welded seams that will often block contaminants from cleaning procedures. Laser-cut, single-plate frameworks provides significant cleanability and sanitary operating advantages over square-tube framework. By eliminating the internal angles, corners, and weld seams, laser-cut, single-plate framework reduces cleaning steps, reduces water and detergent use, improves cleanability, and protects product from contamination.
Sure, process-inappropriate equipment can be put into sanitary processing operations, and it may perform its mechanical operations effectively. But, for the sanitary process operation that is driven by external influences such as regulatory compliance, or internal influences such as HACCP programs, application-specific sanitary equipment construction will provide OCC without compromise to the equipment's mechanical operation.
Sanitary Bulk Material Handling Equipment: Structural Design and Contaminant Removal
As part of an ongoing series regarding sanitary bulk material handling equipment, this post will address the specific issue of structural design of sanitary bulk material handling equipment, and the critical role structural design has in ensuring the safety of sanitary product. Of course, sanitary structural design and sanitary materials of construction are equally important factors effecting the ability of bulk material handling equipment to provide optimal compliance contribution (OCC). For detailed information regarding materials of construction in sanitary equipment, please see this previous post.
In the matter of sanitary bulk material handling systems' structural design, it is worthwhile to restate an essential premise, that premise being: it is possible for two different pieces of equipment, placed into perfectly matching sanitary applications, performing the same mechanical function, and each having achieved compliance, for a unit designed to the specific, sanitary requirements of the application to have a significantly greater ability to prevent contaminants from entering the sanitary process stream than a general, industrial unit force-fit into the application. Let's take a look at several application-specific, sanitary design features that improve cleanability, improve validation and inspection outcomes, protect product safety, reduce consumables use, and ensure improved OCC.
Rounded cross members and angled flat surfaces eliminate material accumulation and pooling of liquids.
• Rounded framework beams and angled, rounded cross members: The use of rounded structural framework in sanitary construction, rather than square tubing common in general industrial equipment construction, eliminates flat surfaces where material accumulation and pooling of liquids can occur. The rounded cross members are also angled away from product contact areas to move material and liquids away from product and speed drainage and drying during cleaning.
• No internal angles or corners; flat surfaces angled 45˚ to horizontal: Notorious for accumulating contaminants and being difficult to clean, validate, and inspect; internal angles and internal corners in structural elements and component construction should be cut out during fabrication to eliminate areas where contaminants can gather. If flat surfaces are present, on controls enclosures, for example; these surfaces should be angled, at least to 45˚ to horizontal, and directed away from product contact areas.
Material release openings remove foreign materials from the sanitary process stream.
• Material release openings: With force-fit, general industrial dry bulk material handling systems, foreign materials (materials other than the intended process material) are often inadvertently directed into the sanitary material process stream because no accommodation has been made to collect and remove them. An application-specific, sanitary bulk material handling equipment design must proactively integrate foreign material release openings at every handling action point; from input to final packaging.
Sanitary suspension design offsets controls enclosure from equipment framework.
• Controls enclosures offset from structural framework: The necessary proximity of control enclosures near to the process stream, and their numerous inherent right angles, make controls enclosures a challenge to thoroughly clean and inspect. Beyond simple standoffs (also common to force-fit equipment), a highly sanitary enclosure management design uses a cut-out inset area and suspension to offset the enclosure from the structure. This design creates material release openings and visual inspection openings, and eliminates right angles, welded joints, and flat surfaces where microbes, allergen residues, and proteins associated with gluten can accumulate.
Structural design of application-specific, sanitary bulk material handling equipment must be a proactive effort. A pre-production HACCP assessment of the application will effectively guide the framework and component designs as well as the selection of the materials of construction. Avoiding the common design errors associated with force-fit, general industrial bulk material handling systems will ensure the protection of product and personnel, reduce cleaning and sanitizing times, and enable the highest levels of optimal compliance contribution.
Bulk Filling and Discharging Equipment Guide Book Presents In-use Advantages of Application-specific Sanitary Equipment Versus Force-fit General Equipment
The second in a series of bulk material handling equipment guide books has been released. This newest guide book, entitled, Sanitary Bulk Filling and Discharging Systems Data and Specification Guide Book, was developed to bring clarity to the common, yet inaccurate, perceptions of complexity and confusion associated with the integration of bulk material handling equipment to sanitary process operations.
The Sanitary Bulk Filling and Discharging Systems Data and Specifications Guide Book addresses two primary areas of concern shared amongst production and process engineers, plant operations and management personnel, and corporate managers, with respect to sanitary
The Sanitary Bulk Filling and Discharging Systems Data and Specifications Guide Book details bulk bag filler systems, bulk bag unloader systems, bulk container dumper systems, and bag dump stations. Specific content includes: materials of construction guidelines for sanitary structures and components; WIP, CIP, and SIP-ready equipment design and construction; U.S. and IEC/ISO controls and automation compliance; and application-specific risk assessment implementation.
bulk material handling equipment. These concerns are: (i) identifying alternatives to force-fit, general industrial equipment designs touted as sanitary merely because of their stainless steel materials, and (ii) gaining confidence in matters relating to regulatory compliance of sanitary bulk material handling equipment, and the conformance of sanitary bulk equipment to regulated processes and practices. The guide book responds to these, and other issues, by explaining how application-specific, compliance-ready, sanitary bulk material handling systems eliminate the inspection failures, retrofits, corrective fabrication and finishing, and re-programming and re-inspection resulting when general, industrial equipment designs are force-fit into sanitary applications. The guide book also addresses the issue of sanitary equipment relative to process and practice acceptance, and the corresponding importance of selecting a bulk material handling equipment manufacturer based on an assessment of their proficiencies in areas such as: domestic and international regulatory matters; SCADA and single-unit controls and automation integration; manufacturing resources; systems commissioning; and installed base of relevant, integrated, sanitary bulk material handling systems.
The Sanitary Bulk Filling and Discharging Systems Data and Specifications Guide Book details bulk bag filler systems, bulk bag unloader systems, bulk container dumper systems, and bag dump stations. Specific content includes: materials of construction guidelines for sanitary structural framework and components; WIP, CIP, and SIP-ready equipment design and construction features; U.S. and IEC/ISO controls and automation compliance capabilities; and application-specific risk assessment implementation. The guide book also offers a summary overview of other bulk material handling equipment, including: bulk material mixing and blending, bulk material weighing, and bulk material storage systems.
The first guide book in this series is entitled, Automated Bulk Filling and Discharging Systems Data and Specifications, and is also available for immediate download.
Bulk Bag Unloaders Use RFID to Automate Batching and Weighing Process
Bulk bag unloaders are typically not the first things to come to mind when the topic of radio frequency identification (RFID) is considered. Most commonly associated with warehouse management, RFID has found increased favor in other industries due the reduced costs for the required equipment and tags, and its improved reliability (now near 99.9%). Industries quickly adopting RFID technology include healthcare, medical device, financial services, and now, bulk material handling.
This fully integrated bulk bag unloader system uses RFID-driven process communications to automate simultaneous batching of multiple, and varied, chemical mixtures during a single process operation.
The bulk bag unloading process begins when an empty bulk tote is introduced to the system; RFID recognizes the tote and communicates to the system the specific batch recipe assigned to that tote. The primary ingredient is dispensed from a surge hopper into the bulk tote. As the first tote advances to its next batching location, a second tote enters the system. Each tote advances to one, or both, of two subsequent batching stations where secondary ingredients are added based on the RFID recognition of the bulk tote. Each secondary bulk bag unloader batching station consists of four bulk bag unloaders each with integrated material conditioning to ensure consistent bulk material supply is sent to a station-specific gravimetric feeder that provides accurate and repeatable secondary ingredient supply into the bulk tote.
The processor's previous manual measuring and weighing batching system produced one complete batch cycle every 20 minutes. With the fully automated, RFID-driven bulk bag unloader system, the processor now produces one complete batch every three minutes. In addition to the increased process rate, the producer's batch accuracies have increased, material waste is virtually eliminated; labor requirements are reduced; and the automated process efficiency and new equipment construction have enabled the producer to pursue new markets where cGMP-adherent processes are a requirement for entry.