Clean design Conveyor

[Johndesign123]

Hello Guys,
I am a young engineer. I am new to this industry our Costumer is asking Clean design conveyor. Could i know about clean design conveyor?


Thanks
John

 

[Timelord]

Not sure what is meant by "clean design". I would ask the customer exactly what he meant by the term. Perhaps he is after a food grade conveyor. Food grade equipment has some special requirements like wash down capability and bio compatibility of the parts that contact the product, etc.

Timelord

 

[JohnRBaker]

I worked for several years designing, among other things, conveyor systems for large automated commercial bakeries. And yes, we had strict rules for designing equipment used in the production of food products. Things like having an open structure to aid in making it easy to clean, no little nooks and crannies where 'vermin' could live, use of safe materials (which was a real bummer when the standard for plated hardware was cadmium, an absolute NO-NO around food, so we had to either use expensive Stainless Steel fasteners or buy special zinc-plated nuts and bolts). Also any lubricants that were used, such as grease for bearings and such, had to be fully organic and 'food-grade', meaning that if some of it actually came in contact with say a loaf of bread or even the raw dough before it was baked, that it would be safe if consumed by whomever eventually purchased that particular loaf of bread. There was even a self imposed industry standard known as the BEMA (Bakery Equipment Manufactures Association) Codes designed to assure consistency and as an attempt to keep the government from coming in and imposing even stricter standards. At least the baking industry was lucky since unlike other segments of the food industry, such as meat packing, the last thing that happened in a bakery was that your products were placed in a 500-plus degree oven and had the hell backed out of them meaning that it was probably pretty safe to eat, irrespective of what the actual sanitary conditions were in the rest of the place. After all, when was the last time that you ever heard of someone becoming ill from eating a 'tainted' slice of bread?

And just in case your customer actually is looking for something that will be used in the production of baked goods, here's a link to the relevant BEMA website covering their sanitation standards:

https://www.bema.org/bema-industry-allied-links/safety-sanitation-standards/

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[PatCouture]

As Timelord and John have said, I would expect the meaning has more something to do with the cleaning of the conveyor rather than the design being pretty. For reference have a look at the company Dorner and their AquaPruf line of conveyor. I've built a lot of conveyor for the meat industry and there are a lot of things to be aware of in the design.

Patrick.

 

[3DDave]

Most places a clean design is one that starts with a blank sheet of paper; it isn't a copy or a modification of an existing design. Looking at the other questions from the OP it's hard to tell what he is after.

 

[tbuelna]

The "clean" requirement for your conveyor system can have different meanings depending on the application. As others noted, for a food processing application it may require the use of specific non-toxic materials and be capable of being washed down on a regular basis. For use in a clean-room environment, where electronics or medical devices are being produced, it might mean the system should not generate any debris during operation.