Performance requirements for materials used in food machinery and equipment

Commonly used materials for food machinery and equipment are stainless steel, carbon steel, non-ferrous metals, etc. Among them, the part in contact with the food material medium requires that first, it must be harmless to the food and will not contaminate the food; second, it must not be corroded or damaged by the material medium, so as to prolong the service life. Next, Darin Machinery will talk about the performance requirements of the materials used in food machinery and equipment?

1. Mechanical properties

(1) Wear resistance

Some parts of food machinery and equipment usually come into contact with a large amount of materials. When in contact, different materials will cause different losses to the parts, so they need to have good wear resistance.

(2) Fatigue resistance

Food machinery and equipment are generally light-duty machinery and equipment. Most parts are subject to less force, and the size of light-duty machinery and equipment should be as small as possible. Therefore, food machinery and equipment require strength, stiffness, and hardness. other requirements.

For example, food machinery and equipment often encounter high-speed reciprocating components in addition to large batches of items, which requires good fatigue resistance of equipment materials.

(3) Temperature

Some food machinery and equipment work at high temperature, and some work at low temperature, so it is necessary to ensure that the materials of food machinery and equipment can meet the production needs under high and low temperature conditions.

2. Physical properties

The performance of food machinery and equipment is often related to the material properties of the material. For example, in different applications, the material is required to have different physical properties, the heat exchange device requires a high thermal conductivity, and the thermal insulation material requires a low thermal conductivity of the material. The device requires good anti-adhesion and easy demoulding.

3. Corrosion resistance

Food materials contacted by food machinery and equipment are generally acidic or weakly alkaline, and some foods are acids or alkalis themselves, such as acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, fatty acids, etc. Corrosive metabolites are produced.

Therefore, the materials used in food machinery and equipment must be resistant to corrosion, so as to avoid damage to the machine itself, and more importantly, to avoid food contamination.

The degree of corrosion resistance of mechanical equipment depends on the chemical properties and surface state of the material as well as the stress state, the type of material medium, the concentration and temperature and other parameters. Therefore, the advantages of different materials can be exploited by means of composite materials or surface coatings.

4. Manufacturing process performance

The manufacturing process performance of the material is better, otherwise the designed parts will sometimes be difficult to process or even impossible to process. For example, the equipment materials that need to be cut must have good cutting performance.

Darin Machinery specializes in research, development and sales of food machinery and equipment for 11 years. It has a variety of food processing, pet food processing equipment and supporting production lines. If you are interested in food machinery and equipment, please contact us directly.