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It pays to ensure conveyor systems are built with hygiene in mind

03 August 2023

Helen Jackson offers some advice about the importance of having hygienically designed conveyor systems.

Food production machinery needs to be designed and built to withstand its environment – the rigours of daily washdowns and exposure to harsh cleaning chemicals, while also minimising the potential for build-up of pathogen causing debris.

There are many conveyor builders to choose from and for a budget strapped business, opting for the lowest cost option may appear to be the most attractive solution but not all conveyors are designed equally. The main areas to be aware of when sourcing conveyors for use food production environments include:

Materials: For wash-down facilities you need to be looking for a high grade of stainless steel throughout. For the vast majority of applications this means grades 303 and 304.  For some super-hygienic and extremely wet environments you may want to consider grade 316 but this does come at a cost premium.  While mild-steel powder coated finish is a popular choice for some low care areas of the factory such as despatch, wherever there is a need to washdown the machines, be aware that powder coating will degrade over time leading to damage and chips that will expose the base metal to water and chemicals leading to rust patches which are not hygienic and look unsightly.

Any material that comes into direct contact with food products need to be FDA approved, this includes conveyor belts, engineering plastics used as guides or dead-plates and cutting and mixing blades.

Welding: Wherever possible parts of the conveyor or machine should be welded together. Welds need be continuous, with no short tacked sections, and need to be smooth and cleaned to eliminate holes where bugs could gain a foothold. Any hollow sections that are welded need to have welded capped ends to stop water ingress that can build up over time. Beware of holes drilled into sealed sections, even with a screw or plug fitted, water will work its way inside over time, especially if the area is regularly exposed to high pressure water cleaning jets. If parts need to be attached to sealed sections, they should be on externally mounted studs or welded on mounting tags.

Bug traps: The design of a conveyor or machine also plays a part, even if it is built from the best materials there could still be issues if the designer hasn’t taken into account the cleaning regime.  Look out for sloping edges that minimise the potential for spilled product to get lodged. Good hygienic conveyors will take this into account with sloping return edges on sheet metal parts and diagonal or circular cross-braces on leg frames, which will also minimise tight corners that are difficult to clean. Anything bolted to the frame of the conveyor should have minimal areas of contact, for example bearings and leg attachment brackets should be mounted on spacers to allow a hose to swill water behind to remove anything that has worked its way behind.  They also help water and cleaning fluids drain away and dry off, minimising damp corners for pathogens to thrive in.

The care and attention to good hygienic design and the selection of good quality materials will inevitably push up the cost of a conveyor solution. While the cheapest model may keep the cost of a project down, it will not have the longevity and ease of maintenance of a properly designed machine and may expose products to contamination from the breakdown of either the materials used on the conveyor or pathogens building up in hard to clean corners and ledges.  

Paying a little more for your conveyor could end up saving money in the long run and more importantly can help ensure consumer safety.

Helen Jackson is Sales and Marketing Co-Ordinator at Western Mechanical Handling UK.


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