Belt up! Conveyor cleaning technology just leapt forward

BioSteam, a Queensland based and Australian owned business, has been supplying commercial and industrial mobile steam cleaning systems for over 15 years. With a collective 50 years of experience BioSteam has supplied systems across Australasia.

Nestlé, GWF, Goodman Fielder, Arnott’s, Qantas are just some of the clients benefitting from the power of vapour steam cleaning.

3 Phase steam and vacuum systems are used for general cleaning duties around a facility. From walls, floors and benches as well as idle rollers and general infrastructure, motor cleaning and prover sanitation.

“We recently cleaned an industrial exhaust canopy that was black as your boot. The last time it was cleaned, they had to remove it and send it out and then reinstall the 6 m long hood. This was 4 days in downtime. Our equipment did the job in situ in 15 man hours using less than 200 litres of water and produced a waste stream of 50 litres. I don’t think that can be beaten,” explained Neil Hodkinson, Founder and MD of BioSteam.

BioSteam supply a diverse range of industries, from defrosting freezer floors to cleaning air tables to cleaning wire to sanitation and infection control, the company has seen it all.

Now, with the addition of the KHD range of automated conveyor belt cleaning systems, designed and manufactured in the UK, they can offer complete turnkey solutions for numerous conveyor belts within the food industry.

Using less than thirty litres of water per hour these truly innovative systems clean and sanitise in one process.

“We are delighted to have secured sole agency for Keith Handy Design (KHD) unique and proven systems,” said Hodkinson. “We can now offer our clients incredible benefits; from increasing product shelf life, to drastic time and labour savings, all in the most environmentally sound way possible,” he enthused.

The KHD systems are mobile, portable and surprisingly effective. They are proven worldwide within dry cleaning environments such as bread, bakeries and biscuits, cakes and pastry environments where excess water can cause significant issues. Bimbo in America recently installed over 100 of the Jet systems across their network.

“We were amazed and somewhat shocked how quick and simple the system was, our ATPs fell from over 7000 on the uncleaned belt to 24 within 3 rotations of the belt using less than 5 litres of water in 15 minutes, wow!

“We are now planning rollout across a number of sites, this is innovation at work,” confirmed a production manager from a well-known food manufacturer.

There are basically 3 systems available, dependent on the belt type and production soil.

The recently released Jet 4 system offers incredible results, on Intralox, open type modular belts.

A robotic arm moves a “spinner” rotating at 200 rpm back and forward across a moving belt. The vapour steam, at less than 5% moisture then knocks debris from every nook and cranny, whilst the steam holds any dust down and does not launch it into the atmosphere as an air stream does.

“Accelerated, destructive testing after 10 years equivalent use shows absolutely zero damage to the belt, in fact superior cleaning of the interlocking gaps should increase belt life, by reducing any friction from debris,” Hodkinson confirmed.

The Jet 4 is the latest model, released just a few months ago. It offers touch screen programmable settings that recall the belt size, speed and debris level of the belt and runs the set programme for that individual belt.

The system is designed to be adjustable to all similar belts within a factory so one system can cover a multitude of belt sizes. Spirals are expensive pieces of infrastructure and cleaning them has been difficult, until now.

The other two systems are designed to clean AND vacuum on flat web belts.

There are portable systems, 5 minute setup and breakdown, these clean the food contact surface and leave a belt clean and sanitised. The belts are run through the patented cleaning head where dry steam is injected, held in a chamber and then vacuumed on exit from the head. All waste is collected so no floor cleaning or collateral cleaning is required.

The second flat belt system is return mounted and can be run continually during production.

The systems can be single or twin head, so enabling both sides of a belt to be immaculately clean on every rotation of the belt.

BioSteam have the largest return mounted dual head system in the world working on the Sunshine Coast.

“Not only have we saved the client a vast amount of money on belt replacement, we are achieving almost sterile results,” explained Hodkinson. “The client immediately ordered a second system to be matched to their new production line. The payback was a no-brainer,” he quipped.

Up until now the industry has relied on scrapers, water nozzles, air blowing and chemical cleaning. Oftentimes conveyor belts need to be removed for cleaning, dried and then replaced. This can cause significant downtime, the conveyors are the artery of any food manufacturing after all. It’s often easier to take a belt off than get it back on!

CIP systems have previously relied on water injection through high pressure nozzles, they have never really been particularly effective or efficient and a lot have never been used and removed as redundant.

With the BioSteam and KHD systems offering to increase hygiene standards, reduce down time and labour, reduce chemical as well as waste streams, the future is looking bright for this innovative and unique company.

Videos are available of the numerous systems directly from the BioSteam website as well as YouTube channel.

To discuss your needs and uses please contact;

Neil Hodkinson

neil@BioSteam.com.au

07 38241883

www.BioSteam.com.au

“When you want really clean, not Nearly clean”

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• Improves line productivity (availability)
• Improved belt condition with fewer breakdowns
• Quicker more frequent cleaning cycles
• Opportunity for extended production
• Dry cleaning action leaves belts ready for use
• Reduces risk of shutdown due to quality and sanitation issues
• Eliminate cross-contamination, allowing faster product changeover saves on maintenance and labour costs
• Cleaning in place
• Portable and easy to set-up on multiple belts
• Device works tirelessly without supervision
• Significant reduction in labour to clean belts
• Visually clean belts gives greater confidence in cleaning progress
• Technology designed for unskilled staff
• Frees-up maintenance staff
• Belt removal by qualified technicians less frequent
• Time-slots for belt removal are at a premium and lower priority compared to production demands
• Frees-up sanitation staff
• Staff deployable to other sanitation duties
• Manual belt cleaning normally requires multiple staff at the same time, not required for automated cleaning
• Improves sanitation — kills mould spores and microorganisms
• Proven in mould reduction programs
• Steam kills microorganisms
• Does not require chemicals
• Environmentally attractive technology