Sanitising sprays for the food and beverage industry

Spray of sanitising agents like peracetic acid are commonly used to disinfect areas of the food production line.  Unlike cleaning sprays no impact is needed from these sprays so an entirely different set of spray characteristics is required.

In most cases the need will be for very finely atomised sprays that will 'fog' and distribute through the air.  This will allow the spray to come into contact with any surfaces where microbes may be present thus sterilising all parts of the plant, even if they do not have line of sight to the nozzle itself.

Air atomising nozzles

Air atomising nozzles are commonly used for these types of applications as they have low flow rates and can produce very fine fogs at low pressures. With non-air assisted nozzles the fluid will need to be sprayed at higher pressures to achieve the desired mist/fog effect and this is undesirable as many of the sterilising fluids used are potentially dangerous. Having dangerous acids under high pressure presents some considerable safety concerns, so low pressure solutions are often opted for.  If siphon fed air atomising nozzles are used the sterilising fluid does not need to be kept under pressure at all as the compressed air flow through the nozzle can be used to siphon the fluid into the air stream.

Air atomising systems also have the advantage of projecting the spray a considerable distance from the nozzle.  This allows even low flow rates of fine fogs to be distributed over fairly large areas.

Hydraulic nozzles

For smaller areas that need a more directed sanitising spray than normal, hydraulic nozzles can be deployed. Often these are used on conveyor systems to deliver a fine mist of sanitising agent to product as it moves under a spray bar.  Typically fluid pressures of 5 bar or more are required to produce a fine enough mist to give good penetration and coating.  

Mobile sanitising

Often the simplest way to washdown and sanitise complex environments like food factories is via manually operated washdown systems.  The cleaning fluid is directed where it is needed via a washdown lance or gun.  Whilst this is labour intensive it is often not feasible to have every part of the factory covered by pre-installed, automated washdown systems with nozzles that cover every nook and cranny.

We offer a wide range of washdown systems from Lafferty.  Most units will deploy venturi mixing to accurately dose a mains or boosted pressure water supply with chemical concentrate.  The mixing can be done at a wall mounted unit, from a mobile trolly unit or even directly at the gun/lance.

Fogging systems

In addition to washdown sanitising guns we also have a range of fogging systems that can deploy very finely atomised sanitising chemicals over a wide area.  These foggers can be stationary, filling an area from one point, or they can be mobile/manually operated. The advantage of fogs being that they can reach all areas of factory that traditional washdown systems might miss. 

Air pump sanitising systems

Air pumps are a handy way to deliver higher fluid pressures without the need for external power sources. Often deploying motorised pumps in a food factory can be costly and difficult.  Air pumps remove many of these issues as they run entirely on compressed air.  As long as a suitable compressed air line and be attached to the system, fluid pressure can be boosted, and flow rates increased accordingly.

The air pumps system can be combined with a venturi mixing system to allow for on-the-spot mixing of chemicals from concentrate or can be used to spray pre-mixed solutions.  They are available as wall mounted or mobile units.