Case Study: Brewery Boiler Seal
For most western economies the brewery industry has been a steady form of commerce for many years. Silicone Engineering supply a vast range of silicone rubber products into the Brewery industry and the Food and Beverage industries as a whole because of the benefits silicone rubber offers.
Easy to clean, inherent thermal stability plus its compatibility with FDA regulations promotes silicone rubber as a critical sealing material in many food and beverage industries.
The Opportunity and Challenge
Recently, a potential prospect was referred to Silicone Engineering by a longstanding customer. The enquiring company was a large commercial brewer of multiple beers and came to Silicone Engineering because of re-occurring sealing failure on their brewery boiler equipment.
The problem involved seal failure in three separate parts of the steam copper kettle boiler. The rectangular inspection lid, funnel aperture, and the main lid were all subject to failure as the current seal in-place continued to fail. The staff using this equipment were desperate and tried to resolve the problem by using food-safe glue to attach the seal back into place following the seal dislodging after several cycles.
The Solution: suraSil™ food-safe solid silicone square section
Following a telephone conversation and some detailed descriptions, our commercial team working with one of our material engineers deduced that current seal was in-fact the wrong size and hardness for the application.
A square section at 60 shore hardness A, cut and joined would work correctly for this application. Our suraSil™ formulation that was for the extruded is food approved and would be able to handle the hour-long boiling duration.
The extrusion die was crafted in-house, with the full order being shipped out promptly. To the customer’s delight, the seal performed excellently within the different boiler compartments.
For more silicone sealing solutions for the food and beverage industries take a look at our related Case Studies and Products in the link tabs below.
