SWEDEN – Alfa Laval has introduced ThinkTop pulse seat clean, a new solution aimed at quickly and effectively making drain valves spotless while delivering savings of up to 95% in cleaning-in-place (CIP) liquid.
Drain valves perform the critical function of allowing excess liquid to escape from food process lines and comprise up to 20% of all valves in a typical processing plant.
But cleaning them is costly, difficult and time-consuming due to long cleaning cycles and the risk of pressure shocks.
Alfa Laval is however confident that ThinkTop pulse seat clean can address all these issues while at the same time cutting drain valve CIP liquid consumption by up to 95%.
“The ThinkTop pulse seat clean brings unheard-of savings in CIP liquid to process plant owners and operators compared to conventional PLC timer-controlled seat cleaning,” said René Stietz, product portfolio manager, valves and automation, Alfa Laval.
“Alfa Laval is the first and only valve automation solutions provider to deliver significant savings in CIP liquid for drain valves.”
ThinkTop pulse seat clean works by allowing short bursts, or pulses, to drive the valve cleaning process, activating the valve when shear forces peak.
Each position-based pulse takes less than a second, preventing pressure shocks in the system, Alfa Laval explains.
The pulse creates high turbulent flow as the liquid passes through the narrow gap between the valve house and valve seat, effectively removing all residuals for spotless drain valves.
Besides reducing the volume of CIP liquid used, programming the sensor to open and close the seat quickly ensures faster, more rigorous cleaning and hygiene than timer-controlled cleaning.
The ThinkTop also verifies valve cleaning has been completed, making control and validation of valve cleaning cycles easy.
According to Alfa Laval, pulse seat clean is a standard feature of ThinkTop V50 and V70 sensing and control units with one solenoid valve.
The company notes that it is intended for use with single-seat valves or butterfly valves used as drain valves
Regardless of actuator mode, the drain valve may be configured as a normally open or normally closed shutoff or changeover valve, the company said.
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