Monitoring hygiene in food manufacturing
Many manufacturers in the food industry use the same filling station for a range of different products. Because of the high hygienic standards in the food production lines, regular cleaning intervals are necessary as well. This Cleaning In Place (CIP) is conducted with high tempered water and steam, sometimes combined with additional detergents (e.g. NaOH).
Distinction of fluids to avoid contamination
Interfacing is the separation of different fluids, applied especially in the food industry. When the Cleaning In Place (CIP) is carried out, it is essential to separate the cleaning solution from the actual product in order to avoid contamination. Schmidt + Haensch inline process refractometers provide you with the exact setting points to trigger automatically the valves using the signal output of the instrument. Using these features, you not only eliminate contamination – you can also optimize the recycling of the cleaning fluid. The instrument operator must decide when the specific product in the pipeline is without residue and identify the interface to the next product visually, normally just through color variation. After each batch, or after CIP cleaning, the actual interface between water and product or two separate products has to be detected. Due to human error, a huge amount of product gets wasted in this way. By using a real-time Refractive Index (RI) measurement instrument from the Schmidt-Haensch iPR series you can monitor and control all these processes. Such a process refractometer from Schmidt + Haensch allows you to switch products without the need for a shutdown. It provides a reliable measuring value which represents the exact interface of the fluids within the pipeline and helps minimize the amount of waste.
