The CIP process is an essential procedure for meeting all hygiene requirements and ensuring the desired product quality with regard to food safety. The first step is usually to pre-clean the equipment with the last rinse water from the previous cleaning process. This assumes that a batch water tank is available. This is followed by rinsing with hot water. This is usually followed by a cleaning step with caustic soda. After a further rinse with water, cleaning is often carried out with nitric acid or phosphoric acid. If there are no further requirements, cleaning is completed after a further rinse with water, which is collected in the stacking tank. During cleaning, the parameters temperature, flow rate, concentration of the cleaning media and the duration of cleaning are key factors for successful cleaning.

Temperature and concentration must be right

The higher the cleaning temperature, the greater the cleaning success. On the other hand, excessive temperatures can cause damage to the system. Jumo uses the Jumo Dtrans T100 for temperature measurement. This temperature sensor is versatile and particularly suitable for hygienic applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. In combination with the temperature, the concentration of the cleaning agent is a key measured variable. If the concentration of the cleaning media is too low, the desired cleaning result will not be achieved - possibly unnoticed. On the other hand, overdosing leads to higher costs. Precise measurement of the media concentration is therefore important, as it makes it possible to control and save water consumption on the one hand and detergent consumption on the other.

Conductive conductivity measurement can be used to monitor the concentration in the containers and to separate the product flows during CIP return. High accuracy is particularly important at this point. Too much detergent must not be allowed to enter the drain and at the same time the concentration in the stacking tanks must not be reduced too much. This is where the Jumo CI HT10 sensor comes into its own. The precise concentration measurement and short response time of the integrated temperature measurement help to save process water and detergent. The setup software makes configuration easy for the user. Most of the concentration curves are stored there; the user can add others. The exact concentration is thus determined depending on the integrated temperature measurement and the conductance value.

Hygienically perfect flow measurement

Jumo uses the Optiflux 6000 for flow measurement. Magnetic-inductive flow measurement (MID) is suitable for hygienic measurements in the food sector. A high flow rate ensures that the cleaning media flows quickly through the system and that deposits and impurities are removed mechanically. Ensuring a turbulent flow plays a major role here, as the mechanical forces are significantly higher in this case.

In addition to these important measured variables, sensors are required that are important for the safe operation of the system. This includes measuring the fill level of the containers using reliable full and empty detectors. They are important for system safety. The Jumo Zelos C01 LS capacitive level indicator, which can also be used as dry run protection at the pump inlet, is suitable for this purpose.

The CIP system is controlled by the Jumo Varitron 500 automation system, which is based on the modular Jumo Jupiter platform. Together with the tried-and-tested input and output modules from the Fulda-based company, the central unit forms a complete system and provides a PLC (Codesys V3.5). Integration into the higher-level process control system is realized via interfaces such as OPC UA and Modbus TCB.

Software for data analysis

All relevant measurement data can be recorded with the Smartware Evaluation software. This browser-based solution enables the intuitive evaluation and visualization of process data recorded via Jumo Varitron. Individual dashboards enable targeted access to the recordings. Tamper detection based on digital certificates ensures data security. The data recording makes it possible to document and analyze the cleaning results. This allows optimization potential to be identified and measures to improve cleaning results to be initiated. It is sometimes necessary to adjust the process parameters. This is where the Jumo Smartware Program software supports the intuitive adaptation of the CIP program. The browser-based software solution creates and edits process engineering programs and recipes with the Jumo Varitron. This allows system manufacturers to define process steps and then link them to a program using the graphical editor. The system operator can control the program sequence via a linked web interface.