Optimising actuator hygienic design for food & beverage production
31 March 2023
Food and beverage manufacturers are requiring cleaner, safer machine designs from their OEM machine builders. Here, Gerard Bush of INMOCO explains the key considerations of actuator design.
As the linear mover in many production applications, it’s crucial that actuators are designed to ensure optimum hygiene by preventing the build-up of bacteria, and withstand aggressive washdowns. When specifying an electric actuator, it’s also vital that they ensure lasting use without the need for extensive, time-consuming maintenance.
Within food and beverage production, actuators are commonly present when linear motion is required. As such, linear actuators are used in applications ranging from packaging to handling the product itself, with processes such as forming, cutting, and slicing.
The trend of food and beverage manufacturers increasingly requiring cleaner, safer designs from their OEM machine builders (particularly within higher-risk processing environments, such as meat, cheese, dairy, seafood and poultry) is in turn pushing this demand to machine component manufacturers. For actuator designs, this means they must be optimised for hygienic use, while ensuring accurate performance, reliability, and long life.
Read the full article in DPA's April issue
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