Hygienic Piping Engineering

http://www.pipingguide.net/2010/08/hygienic-piping-engineering.html

Hygienic piping finds application in Food, Pharma and Beverage industry. Due to the increase in automation, on-line CIP has come into existence in these sectors. In hygiene systems, about 4/3rd time is spent on process engineering and 2/3rd time is devoted for the cleaning and disinfection process. All surfaces in contact with the product (say food) must be inert to the product under the conditions, of use and must not be caught, migrate to or be absorbed by the product.

All surfaces in contact with food must be smooth and non-porous so that tiny particles of product, bacteria, or insect eggs are not caught in microscopic surface crevices and become difficult to distodge, thus becoming a potential source of contamination. 

Mechanical considerations of the cleaning-in-place process are seldom of significance. Adhesive forces must be considerably reduced during cleaning; this is most often accomplished chemically. Surface active detergents have to be able to overcome capillary forces. The composition of the ions in solution also influences the Vander Waals forces and the electrostatic forces.

3. Pipes

Standard followed: DIN 11850/ ISO 2037. The piping layout helps to determine the functional safety of the product transport. It is important that all parts in the network receive an equally intense treatment with the cleaning detergents, and that the pipe network can run completely empty.

Basic Principles of Sanitary Design

• AII surfaces in contact with the product (say food) must be inert to the product under the conditions of use and must not migrate to or be absorbed by the product. 

• All surfaces in contact with food must be smooth and non-porous so that tiny particles of product, bacteria, or insect eggs are not caught in microscopic surface crevices and become difficult to dislodge, becoming a potential source of contamination. 

• All surfaces in contact with the product must be visible for inspection or it must be demonstrated that routine cleaning procedures eliminate the possibility of contamination from bacteria/insects.

• All surfaces in contact with the product must be readily accessible for manual cleaning or if not readily accessible, be readily disassembled for manual cleaning, or if CIP techniques are used, it must be demonstrated that the results achieved without being disassembled for manual cleaning, or if CIP techniques are used, it must be demonstrated that the results achieved without disassembly are the equivalent of those obtained with disassembly and manual cleaning.

• All interior surfaces in contact with the product must be so arranged that the equipment/piping is self employing or self draining.

• The piping must be so designed as to protect the contents from external contamination.

• The exterior or non-product contact surfaces should be arranged to prevent harbouring of soils, bacteria or pests in and on the equipment itself as well as in its contact with other equipment, floors, walls or hanging supports.

• In design, construction, installation and maintenance, it is important to avoid dead space or other conditions which trap food, prevent effective cleaning and may allow microbial growth to take place.

There is no Substitute for Common Sense, and no Specification can be Complete Enough to Insure a Sanitary (Hygienic) Design.