Cleaning in animal feed production

REQUIREMENTS

At our customer in animal feed production, the following areas in particular had to be cleaned: motors of production systems, dye-carrying lines and pipes, pumps and valves, as well as the workshop area and the storage silos in general.

The contamination mainly found was:

• Dried-on grain and flour residues (e.g. fish meal); these were frequently mixed with oils from production and from the machines,
• Very colour-intensive and colour-fast dyes, used e.g. to colour fish feed, and
• Usual oily and greasy contamination from the workshop area.

PREVIOUS TECHNOLOGY

In the company there was a cold-cleaner wash table and a high-pressure cleaner. Where the high-pressure cleaner could not be used because of the complexity of the systems or the high water volume, the subject of cleaning tended to be treated as a stepchild. According to the employees, the large animal-feed silos had not been cleaned for decades.

Although the typical workshop contamination was removed with the cold-cleaner wash table, up to now there had been no really satisfactory solution for cleaning the oily flour-grain-dust deposits.

OUR SOLUTION

With the help of the low-pressure hot-water process – low pressure of up to 7.5 or 14 bar and high temperatures of up to 95°C – contamination in the workshop could be removed as usual without any problem. The result could be accelerated further by using an alkaline cleaner.

Above all, however, the typical animal-feed production contamination was removed with ease and in the shortest time. The ease with which outstanding cleaning results were achieved amazed the employees.

For cleaning the storage silos, a unit with higher pressure ranges, i.e. with pressures of up to 14 bar, was a good choice because of the higher area performance.

YOUR BENEFITS

• Efficiency/quality: Fast and thorough cleaning. Thanks to various lances and nozzles, easy cleaning even of hard-to-reach or sensitive areas, e.g. at the valves and motors.
• Optimal accessibility: Units are mobile and largely self-contained, and can therefore be driven up to the machine to be cleaned without any problem. Large parts therefore do not need to be removed.
• Easy cleaning even in production: minimal splash-back effects, no droplet clouds, no aerosols and much more.
• Thanks to the low pressure, no damage to sensitive parts.
• Considerably more pleasant work than by hand or with chemicals.
• Cleaning medium: Hot water or deionised water, without added chemicals. Therefore:
• No contamination risk.
• Low costs for procurement and disposal.
• Spontaneous use in an emergency possible at any time.
• Disinfecting effect.
• Occupational and environmental protection: No chemicals means higher environmental compatibility, higher occupational safety and significantly lower costs.
• Overall: Considerably less working time when cleaning, thus fewer stoppages, better cleaning result, no chemicals, no damage.
• Comparatively low investment and hardly any running costs, but in return high efficiency and quality.

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Cleaning at an animal feed producer (PDF)