Sealing technology manual for the process industry - Food industry

THE PROCESS INDUSTRY AND ITS REQUIREMENTS FOOD INDUSTRY lization), high temperatures prevail, which present a major thermal load for seals. Ultimately, the wort also pro- motes a high degree of wear of the seals. For this reason, the sealing ma- terial for this application should be carefully selected. Non-alcoholic beverages While alcoholic and carbonated drinks stabilize themselves due to their ingre- dients, still waters are highly sensitive products whose production process re- quires great attention with respect to hygiene and cleanliness. Because of the use of strong cleaning media in the production of fruit juice and because of flavor-containing additives, it is not possible to use just any elastomer or plastic material. The diversity of the food industry re- quires separate consideration of the different areas, since the respective requirements are as varied as they are numerous. Beer Hygiene and cleanliness of the pro- duction facilities as well as a variety of other challenging factors require a precisely matched sealing technology in the production of beer. In addition to the sometimes aggressive cleaning processes, the sealing materials must withstand salt deposits (beer scale) and tolerate a high CO2 content. The preferred cleaning method uses acid at a concentration of up to 3% at +80 °C (+176 °F) in order to remove the salt deposits from the pipe system. During production and cleaning (steam steri- Dairy products In the dairy industry, influences such as a high fat content of the product me- dia must be taken into account in the selection of materials. An EPDM mate- rial which has a very good resistance to CIP/SIP media, for example, has only lim- ited resistance to fatty media. Clean- ing with alkaline solution is also carried out very intensively, i.e. at high concen- trations and temperatures, in order to eliminate the fat and protein residues from the pipes. Steam sterilization methods are also to some extent used much more intensively in dairies than for instance in breweries. The seals must be designed accordingly for this. Introduction 14

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