Product safety for granulation and coating – Hygienic design for fluid bed and spouted bed systems (German article)

Product safety for food, biotechnology or similar applications

Fluid bed and spouted bed systems of various designs and sizes are used for granulation, agglomeration, coating and heat transfer processes in many branches of industry. Product safety is the top priority when establishing such processes. To ensure compliance with the relevant hygiene conditions, special planning and design principles are taken into account in the plant concept. These include steel construction, insulation, operating panels and wall penetrations.

Apart from the legal requirements in particular the EHEDG guidelines provide valuable directions and specifications for the hygienic and aseptic design of equipment, systems and complex production facilities. These have also to be considered for a hygienic conception of production processes for solid product forms. As a system provider of equipment for solids process engineering and an active member of the EHEDG-subgroup “dry material handling” Glatt Ingenieurtechnik Weimar makes its contribution to the development of guidelines in this field. Results from many years of experiences are considered in the relevant documents.

To be able to produce under hygienic conditions a HACCP concept is developed together with the customer. Various requirements resulting from this concept have to be considered. Glatt Ingenieurtechnik has many years of experiences in this field. Several production facilities with specific hygienic and cleaning requirements have already been constructed on customer order. Figure 1 shows a continuously operated production plant approved for dust explosive materials, meeting the highest design requirements. Among others, this plant excels by a GMP room concept, FDA-approved components and an engineering and construction in compliance with the EHEDG guidelines.