New Endress+Hauser Innovation Helps Limit Cleaning Cycle Times to Only What is Necessary

August 21, 2020

Cleaning time is downtime, and Cleaning-In-Place (CIP) cycles to eliminate product buildup in a food and beverage operation may be running overly long. Another world first from Endress+Hauser – the Liquitrend QMW43 – provides continuous product buildup data to shorten cleaning cycles to what is necessary to do a thorough job while assuring both operators and consumers of consistent product quality.

The Liquidtrend QMW43 provides continuous evaluation of liquid or pasty media in tanks and pipelines using both conductive and capacitive measuring signals. The flush-mounted, stainless steel Liquitrend QMW43 provides reliable measurement of the product buildup thickness.

Opening tanks and pipelines can expose the interior to possible penetration of bacteria, so CIP – automated cleaning in the closed state – is preferred by most operators. To ensure that tanks and pipelines are sufficiently cleaned, conductivity and turbidity values of the CIP return flow are evaluated and documented. In many cases, the duration of cleaning is extended, based on that responsive data and may be overly conservative: better safe than sorry.

The Liquidtrend QMW43 can minimize this unproductive downtime. By evaluating the device’s measurement signals, the plant operator knows whether buildup is still adhering to tanks or pipelines and how strong it is. The additional conductivity measurement also provides information about the cause of the buildup, i.e. whether it is due to product residues or cleaning agents. If the sensor shows no more buildup and conductivity, it can be concluded that the system has been successfully cleaned. Valuable production time can be gained without losing the certainty of bringing flawless products to market.

Also, the lab time that goes into assuring product quality as it pertains to appearance, smell, taste, consistency and shelf life of the products can be reduced. In the control system, limits can be set to immediately identify and reject qualitatively differing products. This makes it possible to reduce laboratory measurements without compromising process reliability and product quality.

Additionally, Endress+Hauser’s Liquitrend QMW43 can be used to monitor and optimize processes like blending or product changeovers.

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