CIP valves for bulk materials handling systems

Coperion Waeschle is the world's first company to develop EHEDG certified and marketable CIP (clean-in-place) components for rotary and diverter valves in bulk materials handling systems

The Coperion Waeschle CIP-capable rotary and diverter valves can now be wet-cleaned in situ fully automatically, without dismantling.

This innovation essentially enables operators of bulk material handling systems to meet the demands of the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries for ever improved standards of hygiene and purity, with only the most negligible loss of available capacity.

With its newly developed and patent pending CIP components, Coperion Waeschle has scored a double success.

Firstly, for the CIP-capable WYK Diverter Valve - Coperion Waeschle was presented with the "Innovation Award" at Powtech (Nuremburg, April 2007) in the category "Apparatus Engineering and Process Components" for its all-stainless-steel, CIP-capable WYK Diverter Valve, introduced in November 2006.

What decided the jury in favour of this innovative development was the resulting increase in the productivity of the bulk materials handling system.

Secondly, for the CIP-capable ZRD Rotary Valve - Just in time for its debut at Powtech in April 2007, the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) certified the Coperion Waeschle newly developed ZRD Rotary Valve as CIP-capable.

Thus Coperion Waeschle can claim to be the world's first manufacturer of hygienic, CIP-capable rotary and diverter valves.

CIP-capability is understood to mean that components can be cleaned in situ fully automatically and are then considered absolutely clean and germ-free.

This is tested by first contaminating the components with milk spores, cleaning them fully automatically and filling them with a bacterial nutrient, which is then incubated.

There must be no bacterial growth.

In order to meet this requirement, the design engineers at Coperion Waeschle had to ensure optimum flow in the rotor and the housing and also at the flanged connections, for which special flush seals were chosen.

Moreover, those internal parts that come into contact with the product, feature polished surfaces (Ra below 0.8um) in order to prevent the formation of deposits.

The CIP-capable ZRD Rotary Valve can be optionally equipped with a swing-open extraction device permitting inspection of its interior with a minimum of effort.

The Coperion Group, together with the companies Coperion Werner and Pfleiderer, Coperion Waeschle, Coperion Keya, Coperion Hartmann and 20 sales and service companies, is an international market and technology leader for compounding systems and bulk-material systems.

Coperion designs, supplies and maintains systems, machines and components for the plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food industries.

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