Business News
Meech Presents Sustainability Breakthrough in Cleaning Food and Beverage Containers
Monday 01. November 2010 - Meech International believes the development of its new IonRinse system presents a major leap forward in terms of energy saving and sustainability in the field of cleaning blown containers, bottles, cans, jars and pre-forms for use in the food and beverage industries. The UK manufacturer has been involved in ionised cleaning technology for these markets for several years and has many leading names amongst its customers. The new fan-driven ionised air rinsing system is the result of more than 12 months of intense research and development.
“The design, features and benefits offered by the IonRinse system are the direct result of feedback from our customers in the food and beverage sectors,” says Adam Battrick, business unit director, cleaning systems. “Like most other industries, the biggest demands are for energy saving and sustainability and so we have tailored this new system to meet those requirements head-on, allowing organisations to more easily meet their corporate and social responsibility targets.
“We believe IonRinse represents the next step in ionised air cleaning technology, which is increasingly replacing traditional pre-fill water rinse systems. IonRinse is extremely compact and provides exceptional cleaning functionality. There are no costs for water, compressed air, chemicals or effluent and no need to handle water or chemical residues.”
The IonRinse system incorporates powerful AC ionisation, a custom designed airflow distributor and high quality inline filtration. During operation the high velocity, filtered ionised air exits the IonRinse head unit via the airflow distributor and enters the container. The precisely controlled airflow works in combination with the neutralisation of static-charges, which breaks any static bond holding contamination to the inner surface. The released contamination is caught immediately by the vacuum airflow and extracted to the in-line filter unit.
The blow and vacuum airflows are provided by the central blow, vacuum and filtration unit. This stainless steel unit, which can be floor or wall mounted, is suitable for use in washdown environments. The unit is operated via a single phase electricity supply and offers a variable flow control, so that performance can be optimised to suit the process. The HEPA filtration system provides extremely effective filtration, capturing 99.99 per cent of particles at 0.3 microns.
The cleaning performance is maximised with the container fully inverted (opening facing down) as it travels over the IonRinse stainless steel head. The Teflon airflow distributor allows the container to run in contact with the surface and this can be customised to suit the line speed and container, in order to achieve maximum cleaning. IonRinse incorporates twin AC ionising bars, offering stand alone primary and reserve ionisation systems. These provide neutralisation of positive or negative polarity static charges in under 0.3 seconds in most installations.
“Weve designed IonRinse so that it is flexible,” says Adam Battrick. “For instance, Meech works with several handling and conveying companies and can supply infeed and outfeed twists to match different containers plus enclosures to house the head unit, while the air volume and velocity are fully adjustable to match each application. Our experience has shown that different containers require different airflow characteristics to achieve the maximum rinsing performance.
“The system can be integrated to run with the line, thereby reducing energy requirements even further, while the clear LED displays allow easy monitoring of areas such as filter condition and ionisation status. The air inlet and vacuum ducts can be connected to either end of the head unit and the drop-down access panel makes maintenance particularly easy. Meech can also take care of all aspects of the installation.”