Food And Pharma Hose Specifications
These hoses are usually intended for the pharmaceutical, food, or biotech industry. Many times the customer is clear about the characteristics of the hose he needs. In many other cases, they need us to advise them on which is the hose that best meets their needs.
To do this, we ask a series of questions to our customers because, depending on the answers, we will choose one or another hose.
What is the application? It is important to have an idea of the purpose of the hose: Is it for transfer? Or is it connected to a load cell? Will it work in suction? What flexibility does the hose have to have?
What certifications does it have to meet? Because you don't need the same certification for transferring cleaning products as for the final product. Does it have to be FDA? Or does it have to be a conductive hose? While choosing sanitary hose assemblies, and other hoses for your factory or company, you must check their certifications.
Product to be conveyed? Fluids and solids can be conveyed, but depending on the type of product, one hose or another should be used. Is it pharmaceuticals? serums? dairy products? beverages? or cleaning products? maybe powder or pills or sugar...? Each product has its own chemical compatibility. Check the chemical compatibility of different materials with different substances.
What is the working pressure? Each hose has a maximum working pressure which depends on how it is constructed. This pressure is always stated on the data sheet. It is also important to note that the maximum working pressure of the same hose model can vary depending on its diameter (smaller diameters can withstand more working pressure than larger diameters).
It is also necessary to be very clear if the hose is going to work in suction, as in this case, it must have a spiral as a reinforcement to avoid strangulation. Finally, if the hose is going to work at high temperatures, this must be taken into account as the working pressure of most hoses for pharmaceutical and food applications decreases with temperature.
Working temperature: even if it is going to work with steam, it is necessary to know if it is going to be constant or if it is going to work for short periods of time.
How will the hoses be cleaned? Several factors come into play here: what chemicals will be used to clean the hose, at what pressure, at what temperature, and for how long, will it be a CIP cycle, a SIP or will it go into the autoclave?
Static or dynamic application: this aspect is often not taken into account but it is very important, as not all hoses can work with movement (normally the bending radius varies depending on whether it is static or dynamic work).
Is the hose fixed or is it frequently dismantled? In some applications, operators are constantly changing and moving the hoses: depending on the type of products, if there is cleaning to be done, etc... If they are heavy and not very flexible, they make the work difficult.
These are the main questions to ask when choosing a hose. Sometimes, some of these points may not be very important but other times they can mean the difference between success and failure in the operation of a hose and these can cost thousands of euros that we are not willing to throw away.
