Hygienic pumps are generally used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries where human health is most critical. The equipment used in these sectors must meet certain standards to protect human health. Some of these standards are 3A, European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG), FDA (Food and Drug Administration, US Food and Drug Administration).
The most important point in hygienic pumps is surface smoothness. Although old literature accepts the surface roughness value of 3.2 μm as the beginning of the hygienic standard, today 0.8 μm or even 0.4 μm is a much more appropriate and accepted value.
The first surface you see on the side is sand mold casting, the second surface is investment casting and the last surface is the surface roughness of the drawn steel material. As can be seen, the roughness is quite high in the first two casting methods. For this reason, drawn steel material is used in the production of hygienic pumps. These irregularities on the material surface are small enough not to cause any significant technical problems in standard processes. However, they are quite large areas for a bacteria to settle and multiply.
Another feature of hygienic pumps and equipment is that they can be cleaned quickly and drained easily. Cleaning is generally done in two ways, “Clean in Place, CIP” or “Clean Out of Place,COP”. Since COP is a very laborious and time-consuming method, it is not preferred unless necessary. However, its basic logic is to disassemble all or part of the equipment, clean it in another area and reassemble it. CIP, on the other hand, requires installing an additional system at the beginning of the production setup, but once the system is installed, cleaning occurs very easily and quickly. In CIP, cleaning chemicals are passed through the same lines and equipment as food through hygienic pumps, CIP pumps are generally used here. Then, the rinsing process takes place along the same path and the cleaning is completed.
GEA Hilge HYGIA
