General Description

A cleaning system has been designed as a central unit for the automatic cleaning of production plants in the foodstuff sector.

Important characteristics for the design of such a system are:

  • Economical use of water, caustic solution and energy by recycling the rinsing water, hot water and caustic solution and thereby reduction of waste water quantity and charge at the same time.
  • Automatic increase in concentration of the caustic solution as well as automatic heating of caustic solution and water
  • Automatic control of the cleaning process
  • Variable programs, easy to change by the operator, protected via password

The preselected system parts will be cleaned continuously via a central cleaning unit. As far as possible the used cleaning agents and water are recycled and used again for the following cleaning run. According to the requirements 1 - 4 cleaning cycles can be provided for and thus 1 - 4 objects can be simultaneously cleaned independent of each other.

Programs

A cleaning program can be composed of the following steps:

  • Pre-rinsing with water that has been already used for a preceding cleaning process. The returning pre-rinsing water is eliminated.
  • Caustic treatment, hot. The caustic solution is redelivered into the caustic tank controlled via a conductivity meter in the return pipe.
  • Hot water. By means of a heater the water is heated up to a preset temperature. Controlled via a conductivity meter and the temperature metering, the water is returned into the hot water tank.
  • Disinfection. In a fixed ratio disinfectant is added to the fresh water.
  • Rinsing, cold. This step is always the last in a cleaning operation. After passing through, the water is collected in the pre-rinsing tank.


The controller unit renders it possible for the operator to combine, to optimize and to store different runs for each object by himself, in order to be able to use these later on. As a rule, the following programs in question are:

  1. Rinsing rinsing only 
  2. Cold-CIP pre-rinsing and rinsing 
  3. Hot-CIP pre-rinsing , hot water and rinsing 
  4. Full-CIP pre-rinsing, caustic solution, hot water and rinsing 
  5. Disinfection can be selected additionally in the programs 2) - 4)

Controls and Functions:

  • The flow in the return pipe is monitored for recognizing system errors.
  • The temperature in the return pipe is monitored during the caustic and hot water phase.
  • Flow control in the prerun for adapting the flow to the CIP object at an optimum.
  • The times for the program steps are variably settable.
  • On tank cleaning the prerun is controlled by pulses, if required.
  • The dosing of the disinfectant is done proportionally to the water flow.
  • The cleaning tanks are always automatically re-filled if the level has fallen below a certain limit value.
  • The increase in concentration of the caustic solution and the heating of the cleaning agents is effected automatically.
  • The cleaning cycles work independently of each other.

System Scheme

The enclosed scheme shows a system with 2 cycles which can be operated independently of each other, i.e. caustic solution e.g. is running in cycle 1, whilst in cycle 2 disinfection is run. The preruns are equipped with mix-proof valves so that a mixture of e.g. rinsing water with caustic solution is avoided. The return to the hot water tank is also protected by mix-proof valves.

Besides the complete, fully automatic system described above, GEA also offers systems with modified configurations, e.g.:

  • Without pre-rinsing tank (rinsing water is used for pre-rinsing)
  • Without hot water tank (the water temperature is reached within circulation)
  • Without rinsing tank, if the water pressure is relatively constant and can supply permanently sufficient quantity
  • Semi-automatic function instead of full automation
  • No mix-proof valves
  • With buffer tanks for caustic concentrate and disinfectant, if the supply is not done from a chemical store