Posted to News on 21st Feb 2018, 00:00
Drum motors withstand clean-in-place processes
Drum motors for use in conveyors in food and beverage applications need both to meet hygiene requirements and to withstand aggressive, high pressure or steam cleaning processes.
Many process and conveyor technology machines and systems in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries must be cleaned after each production cycle in order to make them ready for the next production cycle, clean and free of potential pathogens and cross-contamination. For this purpose, clean-in-place processes are increasingly being used.
In conveyor technology, clean-in-place processes are often implemented with the conveyor belt running. And this has its reasons: on the one hand, it is quite expensive to remove a heavy conveyor belt, which extends over several metres and reassemble it again. On the other hand, however, it is also possible, for example, to be able to clean the links of plastic modular belt strips better during operation, since the interstices are thus best achieved where the members open most of the way.
But cleaning is often uncompromising with high pressure cleaners and steam jets, designed to clean efficiently and as quickly as possible. This means conveying components such as drum motors must not only be resistant to aggressive cleaning and disinfecting agents, they must also be 100% leak-proof.
It is important that motors are equipped with a double IP protection, since a system is specified for IP66, IP69 or IP66/IP69 protection. The high-quality IP69 protection does not automatically include IP66 protection. For IP66 protection, strong jets of water at a distance of 100 litres per minute at a pressure of 1 bar against the housing from any direction for at least 3 minutes have no harmful effects. IP69 provides protection against high pressure or steam jet cleaning. Thus, systems are protected against water jets from close proximity to high temperature.
The stainless steel drum motors from Rulmeca have exactly this double IP66/IP69 protection. Thus, they are demonstrably protected against a preliminary cleaning and subsequent rinsing of the cleaning and disinfecting agents as well as against the microbiological cleaning with steam jet and high pressure cleaners. Rulmeca drum motors for hygienic conveying technology are available in different diameters (80, 113, 138, 165 and 220mm) and performance classes.
