Cologne, March 2020 – For consumers and the government, a maximum of safety
and quality in the production of food is essential. In order to ensure the highest
standards of hygiene, food producers and processors are obliged to clean their
machinery regularly via washdowns. To guarantee that vacuum pumps are
effectively protected from the used aggressive cleaning media, Leybold has
developed a series of Hygienic Enclosures. The vacuum specialist offers users
these stainless steel housings in seven different sizes, tailor made for each
vacuum pump.Risk of contamination eliminated
In the food industry, vacuum pumps are often placed directly next to the processing and
packaging lines and thus not implemented in the equipment. On the one hand, this leads to a
higher vacuum performance because, losses in pumping speed over longer pipelines are
avoided. A direct positive consequence of this, are shorter process cycles and a better product
quality. On the other hand, unprotected pumps are directly exposed to aggressive cleaning
media during the rinsing processes. Over time, this leads to corroded vacuum pumps, shorter
life cycles, higher costs and ultimately even to food contamination.
Effectively protected in stainless steel enclosures
In order to counteract these risks, Leybold has developed a new protection concept with the
Hygienic Enclosures. Encased by these stainless steel enclosures, the vacuum pumps can be
positioned near machines and systems without any problems. „On the basis of the protected
Leybold vacuum pumps we can create better and more robust solutions for the demanding food
applications“, emphasizes the responsible product manager Niels Gorrebeeck. „Of course, this
applies all the more to applications such as stuffers, tumblers and of course packaging
machines, where the machines and systems are cleaned and disinfected particularly frequently
and intensively,“ the product manager explains.
Tailor made & easy to install
Gorrebeeck explains that these stainless steel enclosures are tailor made for each vacuum
pump. As a result each enclosed pump can run constantly on every working pressure. The only
limitation is the maximal ambient temperature for the enclosure. Nevertheless, the normal
working temperature in F&P environments are around 10 °C, we qualified most enclosures up to
25 °C. Further all the enclosures are offered as a Do It Yourself kit and can be as well installed
as commissioned by the user themselves without great effort. „These properties make of the
Hygienic Enclosures a cost-effective, sustainable solution. In the end, Hygienic Enclosures
makes investments in expensive piping obsolete and at the same moment they offer a better
pumping speed performance“, argues Niels Gorrebeeck.
Sustainable solution
Incidentally, this also applies not least with regard to future packaging concepts. Gorrebeeck
believes that the industry is also well equipped for this with the new enclosures: „Regardless of
which solutions will prevail, food applications can be operated from today more hygienically,
ergonomically as well as flexibly. Leybold can successfully accompany these processes into the
future with our holistic solution approaches.“
