Total Solution
01
S&L's Dedication to Food Safety: Supplying GMP-standard Mixing Equipment
2021-09-28
Food safety has always been a big deal in our society. Besides the food we eat directly, many other things related to our daily food, like flavorings, spices, three-in-one coffee, nutritional milk powder, and lots of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), also need close attention from manufacturers, authorities, and equipment suppliers.
The mixing process is really important when making these products. And if you're in this industry, having Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) or food-grade mixing equipment is a must. You can check if it meets the standards through inspections during production, quality control before delivery, and when installing and starting it up on-site.
PMI Testing for Metal Materials
Our equipment is made of stainless steel 316L. To make sure the materials are reliable and can be traced, we do Positive Material Identification (PMI) testing on all the incoming materials.
Certificates for Non-metal Materials
The food and pharmaceutical industries have stricter rules than the chemical industry. So, as an equipment supplier, S&L gives customers the necessary documents, like GMP certificates, to show we meet the higher standards.
RT and PT Inspections
We want to avoid any deformation or hidden corners in the equipment and make sure the welding looks good after polishing. So, we check things like welding height and requirements. We also do Radiographic Testing (RT) with X-rays and Penetrant Testing (PT) with a colored liquid to check the welds. Only when the welds are okay do we move on with the installation.
Polishing and Surface Check
After polishing, we test the surface smoothness. For GMP, the parts of the mixer that touch the material should have a surface roughness (Ra) of less than 0.8. Sometimes, it needs to be even smoother, like Ra 0.4. We use a special tool to check parts like the mixer body, main shaft, agitator, and endplates.
Keeping Pollution Away
Since our food industry equipment is all made of stainless steel, we don't want it to get polluted by carbon steel. So, we have a separate workshop for sheet metal work and assembly. We also put wooden plates under the equipment to stop it from getting scratched during installation, lifting, and unloading.
CIP Cleaning Feature
Vertical ribbon mixers are popular in the food and pharmaceutical industries. In the food industry, many customers use one mixer for different recipes. This means we need to make sure there's no leftover material and the cleaning is really good. Our GPH Series vertical ribbon mixer can empty completely without any residue. And there's a side door on the mixer for manual cleaning.
Riboflavin Test for Dead Corners
The most important part of cleaning is checking for hidden corners inside the equipment. In the food and pharmaceutical industries, we need to do Clean-in-Place (CIP) or Wash-in-Place (WIP) cleaning. So, we use riboflavin to test. We spray a diluted riboflavin liquid inside the cleaned mixer and wait for about 2 hours. Then we start the CIP cleaning nozzles. After cleaning, we use a UV light to look for any yellow spots. If there are yellow spots, it means the CIP nozzles can't reach that area. Only when there are no yellow spots can we say it's clean.
Factory Acceptance Test (FAT)
The Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) is important for meeting GMP. We check things like how the equipment works, the noise it makes, and how hot the motor, gearbox, and bearing get.
Site Acceptance Test (SAT)
If you want to get a GMP certificate for the production process, you need an on-site Site Acceptance Test (SAT) report. We check things like how accurately the equipment is installed, how it works on-site, and if it passes the tests with the actual materials.
