Hygienically optimised design is top priority

优化的卫生型设计是最优先级的事情

In food manufacturing, one of the most important challenges is ensuring complete hygiene at all steps in the process. For Minebea Intec, the subject of hygienic design has been the top priority for many years now, a fact that continues to be apparent in the new systems introduced by the company.

在食品行业，最重要的挑战之一就是在整个过程中确保完全卫生。从茵泰科这几年不断推出的新系统新动向中，可以很明显的看到，卫生型设计这个题目已经成为最优先级的事情。

For a company working in food manufacturing, nothing can ruin a good reputation quicker, or entail such high financial costs, as news of products contaminated with, say, dirt, mould or bacteria. “In modern systems, where food and beverages are being produced in industrial quantities, hygiene throughout the process chain is extremely important to guarantee high-quality products and to minimise safety risks for consumers,” says Frank Wieland, Chief Sales Officer at Minebea Intec, one of the leading manufacturers internationally of industrial weighing and inspection technology.

在食品行业中，产品含有例如灰尘、霉菌或细菌的新闻，会迅速搞臭一家公司的名声，造成高额的财务损失。茵泰科作为工业称重和检测技术全球领先的供应商，对此深有感触，首席销售经理Frank Wieland说：”在现代系统中，食品饮料都以工业级的数量进行生产，整个过程链都必须保证卫生，确保产品的高质量，将对消费者的安全风险降到最低。”

The high value placed on hygiene is also apparent from the numerous organisations and regulations that operate across the world to ensure complete hygiene in food production. In Europe, the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) is the leading organisation that is strengthening awareness of hygiene in the food industry with relevant guidelines and disseminating technical knowledge about hygienic construction and design in the production process. Other institutions such as the National Sanitary Foundation (NSF) and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA, and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) in the UK, alongside methods such as the 3-A Sanitary Standards, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), are concerned with hygienic processes and regulations in food production around the globe.

对于大量在全球运营的组织和规则制定者看来，确保生产过程中的卫生是具有高附加值的。在欧洲，欧洲卫生工程与设计组(EHEDG)是一家领导性的组织，它在生产过程中提供卫生建设和设计的指导，传播技术知识，大大加强了食品行业的卫生意识。其它组织包括美国的国家卫生基金会（NSF）和食品药品管理局（FDA）、英国的英国零售商协会(BRC)等，3-A卫生标准、良好生产实践(GMP)、危害分析和关键控制点（HACCP）等相关标准也与全球食品生产中的卫生过程与法规有关。

Hygiene begins with design

卫生从设计开始

“For Minebea Intec,” emphasises Nick Parsons, Head of Product Management at Minebea Intec, “this sensitive topic has been the top priority for many years. When designing new systems, therefore, particularly for the food industry but also for others, we always seek to optimise the design in relation to hygiene. This applies to all three of our areas of business – that is, to our load cells and industrial scales as well as to all the systems in our Company Inspection sector.”

Nick Parsons是茵泰科产品管理的领导，他强调：”在茵泰科，这个话题已经是多年来的最重要话题了。在设计新的系统时，特别是考虑到食品行业产品（当然也包括其它行业）时，我们总是要优化于卫生相关的方面。在我们所有三个业务领域：传感器、工业秤和检测设备的产品设计时，都是如此。”

Nick Parsons is convinced that hygienic design begins with the selection of suitable materials; the use of high quality, food-grade stainless steel with the smoothest possible surfaces produces the ideal hygienic conditions. In addition, it is important in the design phase to avoid creating areas that are difficult to access, since food residues will collect there and could start to decay if they remain for too long. Because all systems used in food production have to be cleaned regularly, the issue of accessibility is an important one that needs to be taken into account. In areas that require wet cleaning for production reasons, for example, partially dismantling the system for cleaning purposes generally can’t be avoided. In such cases, dismantling should be as simple as possible, without the use of tools, to preclude the possibility of food contamination.

Nick Parsons相信，卫生型的设计始于选择正确的材料：使用高等级食品级的不锈钢和尽最大可能平整的表面粗糙度才能获得理想的卫生条件。此外，在设计阶段也需要避免出现难以触及的区域，食品残渣有可能在这些地方堆积，时间长了就会开始腐烂。在食品生产过程中，所有的系统都需要定期清洁，可及性的问题就需要仔细考虑。在出于生产原因需要进行湿法清洁的区域中，通常无法避免对系统进行部分拆解来进行清洁。 在这种情况下，拆除应尽可能简单而无需使用工具，以排除食品污染的可能性。

Other highly important principles to be observed in hygienic design include avoiding horizontal surfaces, sharp corners and angles, excessive numbers of drilled holes, contact surfaces, screws and folds, as well as hollow parts and dead space. The condition of the floor is another aspect that cannot be neglected, if there is to be an end-to-end focus on hygienic design.

在卫生型设计中还有其它一些很重要的原则，例如避免水平面、尖角、大量钻孔、接触面、螺丝铰链和中空部件等。如果要对卫生型设计进行端对端的关注，地面条件也是不可忽视的情况。

Successful examples

成功的案例

“We have been adhering to such design guidelines for years in all of our new developments,” says Frank Wieland. He mentions the new weighing module Novego as a typical example of a hygienically optimised development from the company’s load cell sector. This product for weighing containers, introduced only recently, includes a multitude of constructional details that meet the EHEDG hygienic design guidelines and hence ensure less contamination and more efficient cleaning processes, explains the Minebea Intec manager: “When Novego was being developed, particular care was taken to minimise horizontal surfaces, to ensure low surface roughness and to use FDA-compliant silicone. Stainless steel grade 1.4418, which has exceptional corrosion resistance, provides not only improved hygiene but also a longer product lifetime and greater resistance to dirt, corrosion and even aggressive cleaning products. These factors, together with its high degree of measuring accuracy, make this weighing module particularly suitable for use in the food industry, not to mention pharmaceutical and cosmetic production.”

”我们多年来就在研发中坚持这些设计条例。”Frank Wieland说。他以新的Novego称重模块来举例，这是公司传感器部门对卫生型设计进行优化研发的一个典型例子。这个新投入市场的产品用于料罐的称重，符合EHEDG卫生设计指南的多种结构细节，能确保污染更少，清洁过程更有效。茵泰科的这位经理说：”Novego在研发的时候，特别注意要减少水平面，降低表面粗糙度，并使用符合FDA标准的硅胶。1.4418不锈钢的抗腐蚀性特别好，不仅能提高卫生度，也能延长寿命。此种不锈钢抗菌、抗腐蚀，也能经受强力清洁剂清洗。这些特点，加上高测量精度，使其特别适用于食品行业以及制药、日化行业的生产。”

Frank Wieland cites another example, this time the checkweigher Flexus from the company’s industrial scales area, in the development of which Minebea Intec paid particular attention to observing internal hygienic design guidelines. It is used in the production of packaged foods, to check the weight and integrity of each individual product. “Here, too, we have minimised the number of contact surfaces and horizontal surfaces, and have used an open frame with no hollow parts of any kind.” Summing up, Frank Wieland notes: “In combination with its increased floor clearance, this ensures the Flexus can be easily inspected and quickly and safely cleaned, saving our customers both time and money.”

Frank Wieland还举了另外一个例子，公司检测产品部门在Flexus检重秤的研发上也特别注意到了卫生设计条例。这个产品用于在预包装食品的生产中检查单个产品的重量和完整度。”我们将接触面和水平面都降到最低，并使用了没有中空部件的开放式框架。”Frank Wieland总结说：”增加的地面可清洁性确保了Flexus很方便检查，清洁快速安全，节省了客户的时间和金钱。”

These products are just two of the countless examples in which Minebea Intec has focused on considerations of hygienic design. “No systems specified for the food and pharmaceutical industries go out to customers from us that have not been developed according to hygienic design specifications like EHEDG and NSF,” explains Nick Parsons.

这两个产品只是茵泰科无数专注于卫生型设计的产品中的两个。”我们这里出去的指明适用于食品和制药行业的产品没一个不符合EHEDG或NSF等卫生设计标准的。”Nick Parsons解释说。

Higher costs that pay for themselves

成本要高得有价值

It goes without saying that the extra work involved in optimised hygienic design always brings with it with higher machine and system costs. According to Frank Wieland, however, these additional costs have to be set against the corresponding benefits and savings: “Cleaning a system that has been developed with an eye to aspects of hygiene takes less time, requires less use of cleaning products, entails lower energy consumption and thus results in lower staff, maintenance and repair costs overall. Taking all of these factors together, over the long term there is no doubt that hygienic design systems represent a sensible investment.” In addition, systems designed in this way protect the environment and reduce overall operating costs, which include not only the costs of procurement but also all expenditure in subsequent use, such as the cost of water, effluent, chemicals and electrical and thermal energy.

不用说，优化的卫生型设计会带来更高的机器和系统成本。但是，根据Frank Wieland的说法，这些额外的成本将带来更大的利益并节约使用成本：”系统清洁应着眼于花费更少的时间，使用更少的清洁剂，需要更低的能耗，并因此导致总体上更低的人员、维护和维修成本。所有这些因素综合来看，卫生型设计的系统在长期来说是一种更好的投资。”另外，卫生型设计的系统更能保护环境，降低总体运行成本，减少化学品、电能、热能、水的使用和废水的排放。

And Frank Wieland is convinced that “last but not least, in using a system with a hygienically optimised design, our customers benefit from a reduced risk of lost production and rejects.” For these reasons, in developing the new industrial scales and inspection systems that the company will shortly be introducing, Minebea Intec has once again given maximum attention to the issue of hygienic design. Frank Wieland and Nick Parsons are unwilling to disclose details of these, but refer to a large number of imminent product innovations that will be launched in the coming financial year.

Frank Wieland坚信：“而且，使用卫生型设计优化的系统，我们的客户还可以降低生产损失和剔除的风险。“出于这些原因，茵泰科在生产研发新的工业秤和检测系统时，再一次对卫生型设计的题目投入大量关注。Frank Wieland和Nick Parsons对细节不愿透露太多，但是在下一财政年度即将投放市场的创新产品上，您会看到更多。

Minebea Intec: pen-portrait

茵泰科：简介

Minebea Intec (www.minebea-intec.com), previously known as Sartorius Intec, is a leading manufacturer of industrial weighing and inspection technology. Based in Hamburg, Germany, the company supplies products and services that for some 150 years have been bywords for innovation, performance and reliability. The product portfolio includes high-resolution platform scales, load cells, container and silo scales, checkweighers, metal detectors, X-ray inspection systems and intuitive software solutions.

茵泰科(www.minebea-intec.com)，原赛多利斯工业技术，是工业称重和检测技术的领先的供应商。公司总部位于德国汉堡，150多年来一直提供创新、高性能和可靠的产品与服务。其产品包括高精度秤、传感器、料罐秤、检重秤、金属检测机、X光检出系统和直观的软件解决方案。

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The weighing module Novego includes a multitude of constructional details that meet the EHEDG hygienic design guidelines and hence ensure less contamination and more efficient cleaning processes

Novego包含多种符合EHEDG卫生设计条例的结构细节，可确保更少的污染和更高效的清洁过程

The checkweigher Flexus checks the weight and integrity of packaged foods and similarly meets the EHEDG hygienic design guidelines

Flexus自动检重秤检查包装食品的重量和完整度，同样满足EHEDG卫生设计条例

Frank Wieland, Chief Sales Officer at Minebea Intec: “The issue of hygienic design has been the top priority for Minebea Intec for years.”

茵泰科首席销售经理Frank Wieland说：”茵泰科多年来都把卫生型设计的主题置于最优先的位置。”