Why Ultrasonic Cleaners are Used by Food and Drug Companies

When equipment used in the food and drug industries has to be cleaned, the need for effective and complete cleanliness runs into the requirement to avoid contamination with aggressive and toxic cleaners. Strong cleaning agents and chemicals can easily clean food and drug residues from processing equipment but they can leave harmful traces that then contaminate food and drugs. Industrial ultrasonic cleaners use a mechanically-based cleaning method that can be enhanced with mild and benign solvents such as citric acid. The resulting cleaning performance is better than scrubbing or soaking using harmful chemicals and the process eliminates the danger of chemical contamination.

How Ultrasonic Cleaners Can Clean Without Chemicals

Ultrasonic cleaners can remove food or drug residues from processing and packaging equipment in a simple water bath. The cleaners work by using ultrasonic generators to produce a high-frequency electric signal. Transducers immersed in water convert the electric signal to ultrasonic sound waves. As the sound waves travel through the water, they generate millions of microscopic cavitation bubbles that form and collapse in tune with the ultrasonic frequency.

When the bubbles collapse, they produce a tiny but energetic jet of water that hits the surface of the object to be cleaned and dislodges food and drug residues. The surface is cleaned quickly and completely while the cleaned off material can be rinsed away. Ultrasonic cleaning performance is superior to traditional soaking and manual scrubbing.

While chemicals are not needed for effective ultrasonic cleaning, mild non-toxic substances that help dissolve residues and that are approved by regulators can speed up the ultrasonic cleaning process. For deposits of fat, grease or oil, heating the cleaning tank to soften the residue can also improve cleaning performance.

How Food and Drug Companies Can Benefit from Using Ultrasonic Cleaners

The processing and packaging equipment used by food and drug companies has to be cleaned to the highest standards and pass rigorous inspections. Traditional cleaning by soaking and scrubbing is time consuming and expensive. Hard-to-clean utensils can contaminate products and repeated handling can damage fragile parts. Industrial ultrasonic cleaners can address all these issues and deliver completely clean equipment at low cost.

Specific benefits from using ultrasonic cleaners can include the following:

• Improved cleanliness. The cavitation bubbles of ultrasonic cleaners remove all traces of food or drugs.
• No possibility of contamination. Using only water or approved mild solvents, the risk of contamination with cleaning chemicals is eliminated.
• Reduced costs. Savings result from reduced labor costs and from the elimination of chemical purchases and disposal.
• Improved workplace safety. Ultrasonic cleaning is completely safe and employees are no longer exposed to chemicals or sharp cleaning tools.
• Ease of use. Traditional cleaning methods need training to follow cleaning procedures while ultrasonic cleaning involves only placing the parts to be cleaned in the cleaning tank and setting a timer.

Food and pharmaceutical companies can achieve better output with increased customer and employee satisfaction while spending less money. Equipment such as vitamin molds, filling valves, baking pans and food containers can be cleaned with properly selected ultrasonic cleaners. Ultrasonic technology can improve food and drug company facility performance and increase profitability.

Kaijo Can Help Choose the Best Ultrasonic Cleaners for Food and Drug Company Applications

Kaijo has the experienced technical personnel to help customers choose the best ultrasonic cleaning system for their application. Characteristics such as tank size, transducer configuration, ultrasonic frequency and cleaning power have to match the cleaning application for optimum performance. Kaijo works closely with customers in the food and drug industries and can provide ultrasonic cleaners designed specifically for their use. Since Kaijo builds all its equipment in house, the company is ideally situated to provide the ultrasonic cleaners food and drug companies need.