Design Considerations Overall
The design should not make use of any plating or coating on any of the manufactured parts or purchased components.
- All frame members of a frame used to support machine functions shall be sealed with continuous welds.
- All welds shall be continuous, smooth and polished and shall be flush, free of pits, cracks and corrosion.
- All parts shall have surface finish that will not exceed <3.2Ra.
- All dead spaces (areas that are not sealed and that can not be reached for cleaning) shall be eliminated in the design.
- In general all components used on food machines shall feature stainless steel or appropriate plastic materials.
- All components used on the machine outside of the control enclosures shall have by design a specification of IP65.
- All components with IP65 specifications used on the machine outside of the control enclosure shall also be easily cleaned and sanitized.
- Components that are required but can not be properly cleaned because of their construction shall be placed into the control enclosure or another enclosure dedicated to this function.
- All enclosure in the wash down areas shall withstand wash down (IP65) with water and chemical using during cleaning and sanitation.
The design shall only make use of metric hex head stainless steel fasteners
Cleaning and Sanitation
Control enclosures and junction boxes shall be mounted to the frame and shall not be lower then 30cm (including cables) from the floor.
The user manual shall include a short, clear and simple cleaning protocol for the machine. The protocol should address the how, what, when, who and where for the following points and should consider product zones differently from none product zones:
1. Dry cleaning
2. Pre-rinsing
3. Foaming (acceptable sanitizers)
4. Scrubbing
5. Rinsing
6. Drying
7. Visual inspection and corrective action
All materials and components used on the machine shall be compatible with the usual cleaning products used on these production lines.
Debris Handling
- The design shall prevent the accumulation of debris on the machine and shall facilitate the easy removal of accumulated debris making all surfaces of the machine accessible for cleaning.
- The design of the machine and its components shall facilitate product debris to fall onto the floor rather than rest on the machine during operation.
- The design of the conveyors and other parts/accessories of the machine shall feature minimal horizontal surfaces where product debris can rest on the machine during operation and during cleaning.
- The design shall make use of round tube or if rectangular tube has to be used, the profile shall be placed such as to form a 45 angle with the horizontal plane.
- The design of the machine and its components shall feature loose cable attachment points where cable can be routed from the corresponding component to the control.
- Routing cable through hollow tube frame members is not acceptable.
Environmental Temperature/Humidity
- The machine shall perform reliably when placed permanently in environments where the temperature can reside between 0℃ and 50℃.
- The machine shall perform reliably when placed permanently in hot or cold, compensating or dry environments where the humidity can be between 95% (compensating) to 20% (dry) relative humidity.