Industrial food and beverage processors worldwide are more determined than ever to use effective washdown practices to more thoroughly sanitize their plants and factories. It seems that the pathogens and bacteria are becoming increasingly hard to fight, so plant safety managers are turning up the heat – hot water washdown heat that is! This is one of the best ways to insure food and beverage safety.
Beverage manufacturers and many types of food, pharma, oil & gas, cheese plants and other factories and plants make upfront choices during the building phase regarding how to heat water throughout their facilities. Some companies choose to use steam to heat their water, while others choose heat exchangers or natural gas boilers, much like those in residential garages, but more sophisticated and on a larger industrial scale. This article discusses how hot water mixing stations, combined with best-in-class industrial washdown nozzles, can enable plant safety and quality assurance managers to exceed the best sanitation practices.
Modern factories and plants, as well as smaller operations like breweries and wineries, will often place hot and cold water mixing stations on walls around the perimeter of their facility. Since most floor areas need to be washed and cleaned, sometimes every day, hot water mixing stations will be strategically placed, usually about 50 to 100 feet apart, so the radius of an average hose that is connected to them, which is often about 50 feet, will allow virtually every square foot of facility floor space to be washed down. Equipment is often also washed down for complete industrial sanitation.
Workers who handle heavy, hot water hoses everyday know how hard it can be to drag a 25 foot hose around, much less a 50 foot or a 75 foot hose. These hot water hoses that hang on hose racks attached to a steam and cold water mixing unit or hot & cold water mixing station are extremely heavy. Variety garden hoses are enough of a ‘drag,’ but industrial hoses that handle water temperatures up to 160-180 degrees are industrial strength, and often have 5/8 inch or ¾ inch inner diameters, making them heavy and difficult to handle.
Industrial washdown nozzles, or washdown spray nozzles as they are often called, also need to be industrial strength, handling the same hot water temperatures and the rough and tumble daily usage in factories and plants.
Many people ask to see how a real beverage company works, so SuperKlean has provided two videos showing normal operations using hot water mixing stations and washdown spray nozzles.
First, please click here to watch how a well-known and highly-regarded New Jersey brewery operates. This brewery was featured on a professional brewer’s bus tour during a recent Philadelphia Beer Show. With outstanding sanitation techniques, this brewery uses SuperKlean’s 3600 Series hot and cold water mixing stations throughout their expanding facility. Notice the SuperKlean brand industrial washdown nozzles that are built to take rough handling and drops and keep on spraying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHcCy91zAts
Next, please watch how a famous Napa Valley winemaker, who has used SuperKlean’s 3600 Series hot water mixing stations for over 17 years, strategically places these hot and cold water mixing stations around his facility, both inside and outside. He says by using more hot water mixing stations he saves wear and tear on both his equipment and his employees! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjIjYNeuid8
The best engineered heavy duty hose washdown spray nozzles are designed to help protect workers, while being rugged enough to constantly handle extremely hot water used during washdown. SuperKlean Washdown Products has designed a full line of the industry’s most popular industrial washdown nozzles to help guard against industrial worker injury and accidental spraying, while reducing fatigue with lightweight nozzle options that are highly-reliable industrial solutions. Please check out our latest 2019 catalog to see these hot water nozzles, our industry-leading swivel adapters for hoses, and our extensive line of hot water washdown accessories.
For more information on SuperKlean industrial spray nozzles, or SuperKlean’s extensive line of hot and cold water mixing stations, please call 800-769-9173. Please visit www.superklean.com or call SuperKlean technical support today for help in choosing the specific products best for your application.
