When I have done my CIP on the whole system,
also on the heat exchanger
I'm 100% sure that it's clean so that the next batch is safe.
My name is Palle Melchart. I work for Alfa Laval with
heat transfer, specifically in the food industry.
Part of my job is visiting customers all over the world
who are in dairy or any kind of beverage or
fruit drink processing.
It's very important for them that the heat exchanger
is fit for purpose
that it's actually developed for hygienic food
applications.
Both from an efficiency point of view and from
a safety point of view
it's important to them that it's not just an
adapted industrial heat exchanger.
Talking about cleanability – for our customers
in the hygienic food industries
food safety is extremely important.
And of course, everything in the entire process
needs to be able to be cleaned
down to the smallest organism – it needs to be gone
between each batch
including the heat exchanger, of course.
So, it's very, very important that when we design
a plate for hygienic food industries
that the cleanability is really, really good, so that
the customer can have this safety.
They feel the safety and they have
the peace of mind:
when I have done my CIP on the whole system,
also on the heat exchanger
I'm 100% sure that it's clean so that
the next batch is safe.
Easy maintenance is a combination of all the parts
that a heat exchanger consists of.
It's the frame, the plates, the bolts and nuts
– everything.
So, it's very important that many of these parts
have serviceability built into them.
And it has to be easy to work with from
a maintenance point of view
so that you can easily open it by yourself and
you don't need to have more people.
It has to be to be easy to do it when you close
the heat exchanger
after gasket change or any kind of service intervention.
It needs to be easy to do it right the first time.
Unplanned shutdowns is something that all
our customers want to avoid
– because it will really disturb the entire process
and it jeopardizes their profitability
if they're not delivering their product on time, etc.
So, from a heat exchanger perspective it's very
important that
it's doing its duty and we don't have this kind
of unplanned shutdowns.