Electricity and Control February 2021

SENSORS + SWITCHES

Hygiene under high pressure Claudia Homburg, Marketing, VEGA Grieshaber KG

Milk is tops! But what makes milk so popular? It’s not just a healthy blend of protein, nutrients and vitamins; from the farm to the production facility it is the end result of a safe, hygienic production process. New compact pressure and level switches fromVEGA demonstrate that automation in food and beverage production can be simple, highly efficient and economical without compromising on dependability, hygiene or safety.

T he demand for quality in food is higher today than ever before. More products are being manufactured to suit individual tastes and preferences, which makes ever-faster batch changes necessary. Consumers trust that everything is safe and hygienic at all times – and rarely think about the extensive network of safety measures that make it possible. Intelligent system design is one of them. It supports the reliability, efficiency and hygiene of manufacturing processes – with the help of high-tech sensors and the reliable measured values they deliver. Level and pressure measurement technology from VEGA, in particular the plics ® modular instrument series, has been making a significant contribution to safety and efficiency for many decades now – as if it were tailor- made for the high demands of the food industry. Food products do not require extreme solutions, but, in many areas, simple optimisation and cost-effective production methods. Here, less is usually more. VEGA has expanded its product range to include a compact instrument series that suits this need. For extreme and standard applications Standard applications, in particular, can be automated very economically with the new compact pressure sensors and

Robust, compact, efficient and reliable, the instruments are hygienic by design.

CIP – a real endurance test Time is becoming an increasingly important factor in food production processes, and hygienic production in particular requires a lot of it. Cleaning in place (CIP) is one of the most time-consuming process steps. The potential for savings here lies essentially in consistent hygienic design that allows production systems to be cleaned and sterilised more quickly. However, in view of the industry’s high cleanliness requirements, this assumes that the faster cleaning processes can still be relied on 100%. It requires components whose geometry does not allow microorganisms to collect in hidden spaces, and that themselves can withstand the cleaning and sterilisation processes. Media that are hard on the materials of the measuring instruments are, for example, substances with a high fat content as well as aromatic substances. The cleaning agents are also very aggressive, making it necessary to use materials with high chemical resistance. The new VEGABAR and VEGAPOINT instrument series easily withstand both problematic media and detergents. These pressure sensors and level switches tolerate high temperatures without loss of function and cope with the combination of high temperature and long exposure times. Hygienic design to the last detail What ‘Hygienic by Design’ means in concrete terms can be seen even in the smallest components of the new sensor

level switches with IO-Link. Integration and adjustment are especially easy to carry out. IO‑Link ensures trans- parency throughout the pro- duction chain and seamless communication, from the field level to the control sys- tem. This performance class also guarantees cross-de- vice connection options that support the continuous improvement of production facilities. The focus here is on compactness, flexibil- ity, safety and optimised hygiene.

The new VEGABAR and VEGAPOINT instrument series respond to the growing demand for simple sensors that support safe, hygienic and increasingly efficient food and beverage production.

20 Electricity + Control FEBRUARY 2021

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