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Food & Beverage Product News
DETECTABLE VALVE SEATS ENHANCE FOOD SAFETY
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SPX FLOW HAS ANNOUNCED THE release of new metal and X-ray detectable seats for its Waukesha Cherry-Burrell (WCB) range of singleseat valves. When combined with metal or X-ray detectable O-rings, the new seats are designed to add further security to critical dairy, food and beverage, and personal care processes.
Chris Sinutko, Global Portfolio Manager at SPX FLOW, said: “Contamination by foreign objects is a key concern for processors. The new Tef-Flow P-MD seats add an essential extra level of safeguarding that was not available before, giving processors added peace of mind for product safety.”
As well as being metal and X-ray detectable, the new valve seat can handle temperatures up to 137°C, is chemically inert, has a clean-in-place design, and complies with stringent FDA regulations. Furthermore, like metal parts, the seats are extremely durable, offering excellent longevity.
The new seats are available as options across the WCB single seat valve range and also offered as full stem assemblies to easily upgrade existing installations.
“SPX FLOW continues to work tirelessly to provide marketleading solutions for enhancing the safety of processing food and beverages. The detectable valve seat is an important step and sets a new benchmark for valve safety in the industry,” concluded Chris.
www.spxflow.com
FOOD SAFE MOTORS WITHSTAND OVER 1,100 WASHDOWN CYCLES
RIGOROUS TESTING AT A STATE-OFthe-art hygiene laboratory has verified that ABB’s food-safe stainless-steel motors can withstand frequent sanitation. The motors emerged in full working order after being subjected to tests simulating years of operation in harsh washdown environments.
Maintaining product safety in food and beverage plants requires strict hygiene standards. Frequent washdowns are required to avoid contamination. The challenge is that electric motors used in these facilities can be damaged by aggressive cleaning. Motors specifically designed for these applications can help ensure food safety, improve reliability and reduce the risk of unscheduled plant downtime.
To address the washdown challenge ABB food safe motors feature a stainlesssteel housing to resist corrosion, and IP69 ingress protection to ensure that hightemperature, high-pressure spraying will not cause damage. They are also easy to clean, with a smooth, self-draining outer surface that has no angles where contaminants could gather.
“Our Food Safe motors are already in use at several customer plants,” said Tero Helpio, Global Product Manager, IEC Food Safe motors, ABB Motion. “To prove their longterm performance under realistic wash-down conditions, we worked with a state-of-the-art hygiene laboratory in Sweden to devise a set of tests replicating industrial-type sanitising procedures.”
The test regime reproduced typical cleaning practices in the food and beverage industry with a seven-stage cycle representing a full week of daily wash-down procedures. Detergent and sanitiser were applied during every stage, with acid applied once per cycle. This reflects the common industrial practice of washing down with acid once each week. Temperatures up to 55 o C and pressures up to 25 bar were used. In all, a total of 158 cycles were performed, corresponding to 1,106 daily wash-downs or 418 total hours of testing.
Two IEC stainless steel Food Safe motors were subjected to the tests and were largely unaffected and still in full working order at the end of the test program. In particular, no water, condensation or indication of corrosion was found inside the motors. All the three main O-rings and drain plugs remained tight.
