Pharmaceutical & medical
ON THE SAFE SIDE WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
H
igh hygienic requirements are the norm in the food industry. For example, in order to manufacture flawless products, all pipelines, all storage and mobile containers
and all mounted components must be easy to clean without residue.
CIP processes in a closed piping system involve several flushing cycles with water and other media. In UHT plants for milk, for instance, frequent switching between alkaline and acid cleaning agents is nothing unusual. The processes take place at different temperatures – up to 150°C during the final disinfection under sterile steam. Even with UHT treatment, such temperatures are increasingly held to be essential because viral strains become more resistant over time and the 135 °C that was standard up to now no longer suffices. The hygiene conditions place considerable demands on the measurement technology, particularly if aggressive cleaning agents are used or abrupt temperature changes occur. The instruments chosen must guarantee the required accuracy and be suitably robust. In many cases, therefore, diaphragm seal systems with a mounted pressure transmitter are used for pressure measurement, for example. As a result of these electronic instruments, the measuring arrangement can be integrated into automated processes as well as digitised structures.
The diaphragm seals feature a flush stainless steel diaphragm that is simple to clean. The sensitive measuring element is designed for normal process conditions. However, it can be
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Sterile processes are all-important in food production. And the increasingly digital nature of these processes is also resulting in improved reliability. At the same time, digital technology enables higher-quality monitoring of the instrumentation because the devices are capable of monitoring themselves. The next generation of WIKA’s diaphragm seal system with its patented diaphragm monitoring concept is specially adapted to future structures in sterile processes. Tobias Hench, product manager at WIKA, investigates...
damaged if subjected to extreme loads for prolonged periods and aggressive cleaning agents are a common cause of progressive perforation. Since classic diaphragm seal systems are unable to detect such damage directly, the pressure transmission uid is liable to leak out and contaminate the product. All transmission uids in use in the food industry are FDA or USP-listed substances. Food producers rightly assume that no risks will be posed by these fluids in the event of product contamination. Yet the fact remains that the product’s taste could change or its shelf life be shortened, et cetera if the process is no longer sterile. It is no longer possible to speak of product purity, in other words.
It was against this background that WIKA developed the patented diaphragm seal system with diaphragm monitoring. This solution works with two diaphragms arranged one on top of the other.
The space between them is evacuated and the vacuum is monitored with a pressure switch. If the process-side diaphragm ruptures, the vacuum is balanced. The monitoring device responds to the change in pressure and immediately sends a damage message. Meanwhile, the second diaphragm seals the process off from the environment reliably, so that the measuring instrument can continue recording the pressure until such time as the damage is repaired. WIKA has now launched the next generation of this proven monitoring solution. The new DMSU21SA diaphragm seal system with process transmitter and diaphragm monitoring is compatible with digital systems using the HART7 protocol for communication. This feature fits the device for industrial transformation and has also had functional impacts on the system’s further development. The two main components of the predecessor model – the diaphragm seal plus measuring instrument and the diaphragm
June 2024 Instrumentation Monthly
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