Always on the wish list is equipment that is easy to clean and maintain. Luckily, the features that make equipment quick to change over often impact sanitation and maintenance as well. Tool-free removal makes it easy not only to remove parts for changeovers but also for cleaning.
“Newly designed equipment for ease-of-cleaning include guards that can be removed without tools and minimal guarding in other areas,” Mr. Knott said. “The new designs are made with materials that can be wiped down. We reduced horizontal ledges, sandwiches of metal and round head screws. We used round tubing as opposed to square or rectangle tubing.”
These principles — tool-free removal, no flat surfaces, sanitation-friendly materials — are common to equipment designed for easy cleaning. Baker Perkins executes them through its TruClean standards. The aim is to reduce opportunities for debris to accumulate, as well as improve access and visibility for cleaning and simplify the removal of parts that need to be cleaned or replaced.
Fritsch lines feature straight table profiles, no hidden corners, straight edges and stainless steel.
“All the cutting tools and accessories, such as seed strewers and other units, are mobile and/or easy to remove for cleaning in a sanitation room sink or to hose them down with water,” Mr. Nagel said.
The automatic barrel opening on Clextral’s Evolum+ extruders allows immediate screw access without removing the shafts, and all change points are easilyaccessible, too.
Spooner Vicars designed its new APEX 400 cracker forming line specifically for easy sanitation.
“The basic principles are to remove flat surfaces and waste build-up points and to open up access to critical areas for ease of cleaning and maintenance,” Mr. Nelson said. With that in mind, the line’s heavy-duty gauge roll frames have been redesigned with an open concept that grants access for assembly and cleaning. Scrapers and scrap trays can be easily adjusted, released and emptied. Likewise, conveyors, cutters and embossing rollers can also be quickly changed.
When it comes to staying competitive on store shelves, cracker producers need support from their production lines to turn out a wide variety of consistent products that meet the latest trends.
