Low Volume UHP Water Jet Ideal Recipe for High Volume Food Fryers
Industrial food friers run at peak efficiency only when they are perfectly clean.
In high throughput installations heating elements quickly become contaminated with baked on
carbon -- food appearance is affected; cooking times are extended; temperature consistency is
harder to maintain and oil life is curtailed.
Manual cleaning methods are laborious; the use of powerful chemicals is both time-consuming
and environmentally unattractive and both methods achieve less than satisfactory results.
A new approach to the problem was recently carried out with considerable success at Dearne
Valley Foods near Rotherham. The big savoury products manufacturer brought in specialist
Ultra High Pressure (UHP) water company Aquablast who have wide experience of cleaning
industrial machinery with very low volumes of UHP water at an amazing 35,000 psi (2,600 bar)
operating pressure.
A Koppens in-line frier was shut down and Aquablasted within six hours by a single UHP
'Stripper' Gun - well within a normal Dearne Valley planned cleaning interval.
Ken Horsfield, Dearne Valley's Chief Engineer, said:
"The Aquablast system is impressive. The very low volume, less than eight litres per minute,
and very high pressure removes all the carbon fast and completely and there was absolutely no
damage to any of the fittings. A big advantage is the lack of any hazardous chemical waste
to worry about.
Thermal efficiency and oil condition is right back at top performance. The Aquablast system
beats anything we have tried before both in time, cost and quality of clean."
Dearne Valley have since Aquablasted further friers, including heavily contaminated flue
stacks, and plan to clean all friers with the system on a six-monthly cycle.
Aquablast, based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, design and manufacture environmentally-friendly
surface preparation technology but will also provide tailor-made equipment packages with
experienced operators for specialised industrial cleaning tasks. Ultra high pressure water,
although enormously powerful at short range, loses its energy very rapidly because of the
low volume and is therefore safer and easier to use than older, high volume, lower pressure
waterjetting systems.
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