Continued from page 7
Continued from page 7
• As mentioned above, the category H2 describes products which are not allowed any food contact at all and as such should not be used in areas where food contact is in any way possible.
• H3 products are usually used for cleaning and corrosion protection. Food contact is not allowed so (for instance) corrosion protection oils have to be wiped off before using the appliance they are protecting.
• 3H materials are products which are registered as release agents with direct food contact and as such are used in applications where either edible oils are used or, for instance, highly purified white oils. 3H products are not classified as lubricants.
• HT-1 refers to heat transfer fluids in food processing plants.
Because all these categories include the intended usage of the product in question, it is highly possible that one product fulfils the requirements of several categories. Apart from marketing considerations there is no reason why a product should not have more than one category registration and thereby be viable (from an HACCP standpoint) for more than one application in a food plant.
Food grade lubricant components and base oils It is evident that materials which are allowed to have contact with food must be as safe and ‘unobtrusive’ as possible. This severely limits the type and amounts of additives the lubricant formulator may use and for quite some time H1 lubricants were seen as decidedly inferior to standard products. This is one of the main reasons why the cost-effective plant owner would make such a careful selection of applications where lubricants for unavoidable food contact were really unavoidable.
Option 2 – polyalphaolefins The other end of the scale of standard products is marked by the poly-alpha-olefins (PAO). These synthetic base oils are known to most as the material fully synthetic motor oil is made of. Their homogenous chemical composition makes them resistant to chemical and thermal degradation. They also have very good pour points which makes them ideal for low temperature applications which the food industry has a small abundance of. Very often a quality sensitive purchaser will choose the PAO-based product over any other just to play it safe. The downside is usually that PAO-products are sold at a measurably higher price than products with mineral base oils. At the time this article is being written there is another downside which was as yet unforeseen: the current availability of PAO raw material has declined so strongly that lubricant producers have considerable problems supplying their products.
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While there are still quite a number of tried and tested materials like molybdenum which are not viable for H1 lubricants, the choice of HX1 (ingredients for use in H1 lubricants) additives and base oils is steadily increasing. Consequently the selection of H1 products which a purchaser may choose from is becoming larger and more diverse. While there are a multitude of formulations on the market, there is usually one decision which comes before a specific product and that is: which type of base oil to use?
Option 1 – edible oil The easiest way to make sure that the lubricant is safe would be to use an edible oil. Sadly enough the products which nature provides often cannot withstand industrial strains for any length of time and once they start deteriorating (usually due to lack of oxidative stability), the effects on the machine they are supposed to be lubricating can be catastrophic.
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.130 DECEMBER 2015
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