Are you using Bleach to clean?
If you are using a low percentage bleach as a cleaning agent, their adverse effect on your stainless steel sanitary fittings and valves can be eliminated. Even a low concentration of Bleach destroys stainless steel equipment. Holland Applied Technologies has worked with our customers to provide an alternative to the stainless steel for such applications. One of our pharmaceutical customers has used stainless steel fittings and valves to disperse the cleaning agent into smaller buckets to manually clean the exterior to their processing equipment. When they were done cleaning they would also have to clean the bleach delivery tank and all associated fitting to minimize the damage due to the bleach reacting to the stainless steel. They were actually cleaning their cleaning equipment. In trying to minimize the loss in damage to the fittings and valves, we came up with a alternative cleaning procedure.
Now the bleach tank and all the smaller buckets are changed to Polypropylene. All the troublesome piping has been replaced with a single molded silicone tubing assembly. The flow is controlled with a “non-product contact” stainless steel pinch style valve. This one time conversion from stainless steel to polypropylene has not only made the process of cleaning simple and safer, it has also eliminated the need to spend valuable personnel time to clean all the associated piping. The silicone tubing assembly is used for approximately 8-10 cleanings and it is just thrown away and replaced with a new one. The tubing assemblies are purchased in quantities of 100 pieces for approximately $25.00. This was not only a safer and cleaner alternative but also a substantial cost savings to just replace the tubing and eliminate the need for personnel to have to clean fittings and valves after every use.
Please let us know if we can assist with not only your process, but also your cleaning needs.