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The cleanroom
Cleaning mobile production equipment
In the chemical and pharmaceutical industries,
cleanliness is of the utmost
importance. Production equipment can only be reused if it is cleaned. A new
system from ROTAN GmbH shows how this can be done reliably. The Festo
solution comprising valve terminals and stainless steel components ensures
operational reliability and a long service life.
R
OTAN develops complete solu-
tions for pipeline and plant
construction, tank cleaning,
instrumentation and control
engineering and cleaning technology.
The cleaning specialist’s systems are
used worldwide in a wide range of indus-
try segments, including the chemical and
pharmaceutical industries and the paints
and coatings industries. The new system
from ROTAN cleans mobile production
equipment made from stainless steel,
such as barrels and containers with
capacities ranging from 300 to 1,200
litres. It was designed and constructed
in close cooperation with a well-known
pharmaceutical company.
Reliable cleaning
The cleaning process comprises four
process steps or modules: the inward
transfer of the barrels and containers,
the safety cabin for opening the vessel
lids, the cleaning of the vessels on the
inside and outside, and a buffer station
for the outward transfer of the vessels.
The closed contaminated vessels are first
transported into the safety cabin via a
chain conveyor. Here, the lids of the
vessels are opened manually. Because
the barrels have openings at the top and
bottom, cleaning gloves accessible from
the outside are attached in the upper
and lower sections of the safety cabin.
The vessels can only be opened using
the integrated glove when both doors are
closed. When the vessels are transported
towards the cleaning chamber, the lower
gloves are raised slightly by compressed
air to ensure that they can fold back.
Other small parts that need to be cleaned
separately are transferred in special bags.
After each cleaning operation, the gloves
are tested for leaks with the doors closed
and a pressurisation of 0.5 to 0.6 bar. The
pressure is controlled by valve terminals
MPA, and the pressure sensor
is an SDE5 from Festo.
Flexible attachment
The system rinses the chamber after each
cleaning operation to remove the conta
mination from the barrels and containers.
Different cleaning agents are used de-
pending on the type of contamination.
For water-soluble substances, rinsing with
cold water is sufficient. Non-water-soluble
substances require cleaning with solu-
tions which meet customers’ require-
ments. The vessels to be cleaned are
moved from the safety cabin to the
cleaning chamber. Here they are locked
using a special device consisting of a coup-
ling with spring package. This enables
the system to respond flexibly to possible
tolerances of the vessels. The locking
process is carried out by the stainless
steel cylinder CRHD, while the speed
2.2016
trends in automation
Synergies
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