One application of the coating TECNADIS METALCOAT “Easy-To-Clean” is focused on the food-processing industry in order to facilitate fluids’ transport and to reduce cleaning frequencies, as well as to protect the pipes, tubes and canals from corrosion, increasing their lifespan. Concretely, the coating can be directed to both end users of the food-processing industry and also to producers of those kind of equipment.

Problem: Products such as legumes, cereals, raisin and sugar leave dirt remains on transport and packaging machines, requiring a thorough cleaning between production and production to avoid contamination between them. These cleanings are usually laborious and intensive activities because the food leftovers use to be extremely adhered to the surfaces of these machines..

Application: Tecnadis Metalcoat “Easy-To-Clean” has been applied on different packaging machines for products like cereals, raw cane sugar, cocoa and coffee, among others. Specifically in an automatic multihead packaging machine with 12 hoppers in a nut and cereal production line. On the other hand, this coating has also been applied in cocoa, coffee and raw cane sugar packaging equipment of a fair trade ecological products company.

Problem: When sauces like fried tomato go through the tubes of a sterilizer or heat exchanger, the charred sauce is adhered to the tube walls, and it decreases the effective diameter of the tubes. As a consequence, an extra energy is needed to pump the sauce and to reach the necessary temperature inside the tubes, this happens because the layer of the charred material acts as an insulator.

Application: Tecnadis Metalcoat “Easy-To-Clean” has been applied on the inside tube of one of the 7 sections that form an sterilizer or heat exchanger of a fried tomato processing company. This tube is 6 m in length and each section has 3 concentric cavities.

Problem: During the storage of containers such as bottles, dust and dirt are accumulated on them. Before  marketing them, the bottles are subjected to a cleaning process in which the dirt is adhered to the machine walls. The cleaning of the bottle washing machines is an arduous work because scratching and scrubbing is usually required to clean the surfaces, and moreover this work means to stop all the production line for the maintenance activities.

Application: Tecnan has applied Tecnadis Metalcoat “Easy-To-Clean” product on a twinturbo washing machine from a wine cellar which has this problem.

Problem: In canning companies and, more specifically, in companies that manufacture candied fruit, syrup or jams, they use Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) as a preservative for storage before being processed as candied fruit, which avoids colour changes of the products, maintaining the juiciness, shape and natural texture of each fruit (apricot, plum, peach, pear and apple, among others) and inhibits the proliferation of microorganisms. But this chemical additive has the disadvantage of creating very aggressive environments that cause corrosion damage on the outside of the equipment in these companies, besides the risk of contamination if these oxidized parts come into contact with food. To remove the oxide layer generated by the sulphurous environment, these companies carry out maintenance work through arduous polishing and grinding techniques. These mechanical maintenance processes are aggressive for both the metallic material and the workers who perform them at least once a year.

Application: Tecnan has applied Tecnadis Metalcoat “Easy-To-Clean” on the outside of a vibrating equipment in the candied fruits production line of a company that manufactures canned fruit (jams, candied fruit, fruit in syrup, fruit in alcohol and fruit in SO2).