Before entering the food machinery and equipment industry, the author's imagination for food machinery and equipment comes from the ovens exposed in daily life, supermarket freezers, hotel dishwashers, and boilers in school water heating rooms. Occasionally see the relevant food production. The documentary also tends to think that those devices are like home rice cookers, ovens and other products, as long as a plug or firewood can quickly run to achieve a large number of food production.
After observing various food machinery equipment production lines at close range, the author found that the operation of these equipments not only requires energy sources, lubrication is also very important for food machinery equipment. Once the food machinery equipment lacks lubrication, the friction between the various components of the equipment increases. , There will be serious mechanical wear and tear, and the mechanical failure rate will increase. For high-tech food machinery imported at a high price, it is not worthwhile to increase the number of mechanical repairs simply because the lubrication work is not in place. Moreover, if food machinery equipment has ideal lubrication, it can also increase production efficiency and reduce food production costs.
The author believes that for food machinery and equipment, there are three main factors affecting equipment lubrication: the selection of lubricants, the selection of materials for the manufacture of food machinery equipment, and the equipment operating environment. Through the improvement of these three factors, good equipment operation can be achieved. effect.
First of all, when it comes to lubrication, we think of lube oil as a lubricant. However, food machinery and equipment are equipment for food production. Production of parts and components often requires close contact with food raw materials. Lubricating oil may cause food contamination. Therefore, food machinery and equipment Lubrication requires the use of food-grade lubricants. China's food machinery and equipment started late, and the production of food-grade lubricants is also relatively slow. For a long time, China can only rely on importing foreign food-grade lubricants for production and raising foods. Production cost. In recent years, with the deepening of the concept of independent innovation of enterprises, there have been companies that have built up an automatic production line for food grade lubricants (fat), which makes the food industry chain in China more complete.
In addition to the use of lubricating oil lubrication system, there are also food machinery and equipment companies to reduce the use of lubricants from the point of view of changing the equipment. We know that different materials have different friction coefficient, the amount of lubricant required, the type is also very different. If the equipment rubs against each other The material used in the part has a strong edge load force and impact resistance, so the need to use lubricant to reduce the friction coefficient will be greatly reduced. A company in Germany from this point of view, developed a strong impact resistance, resistance Dirty, chemical resistant materials. Bearings made of this material, raw material rods and other components do not need lubrication, maintenance, reduce the possibility of mechanical failure. And for the part that needs contact with food, the company also on the material Improved production was made so that the material could be applied to any part of food machinery equipment.
Finally, the working environment of the equipment will also have an impact on the addition of equipment lubricants. To take an extreme example, food processing and picking machinery such as balers, earth runners, etc., are working in extremely harsh conditions. Loads and stains are the norm in production. In this case, the use of lubricating oil is extremely frequent. Like filling machines, equipment produced indoors, such as chocolate production lines, is less likely to encounter high-polluting environments, but maintains the cleanliness and hygiene of the food machinery equipment itself and the production environment. To a certain extent, the equipment can still reduce the demand for lubricants. In general, the cleaning of food machinery and equipment can use the CIP cleaning system for internal and external cleaning; creating a pharmaceutical-grade GMP production plant can ensure the cleanliness of the production environment.
Food machinery and equipment are the main force in the current production of food enterprises. Once a failure occurs, the production of food products can be stopped. Unsatisfactory lubrication, as a major killer of food machinery equipment, must be valued by food companies and equipment manufacturers.