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6 Compressed Air

Compressed air is commonly used in food production for tasks like conveying products, powering equipment, opening packaging, and cleaning lines. The document discusses how compressed air systems should be designed, installed, and maintained to prevent the air from contaminating food products or injuring employees, including proper compressor placement, filtration methods, piping materials, and air quality monitoring.

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Indra
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43 views3 pages

6 Compressed Air

Compressed air is commonly used in food production for tasks like conveying products, powering equipment, opening packaging, and cleaning lines. The document discusses how compressed air systems should be designed, installed, and maintained to prevent the air from contaminating food products or injuring employees, including proper compressor placement, filtration methods, piping materials, and air quality monitoring.

Uploaded by

Indra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COMPRESS

Food Safety

hat item can be used to clean


equipment, can be an equipment power source, and can
even be directly injected into
the product, but cannot be seen? If you
guessed air, you solved the riddle!
Air is often overlooked as a food
plant hazard because it is all around us,
yet invisible. But, have you considered
how air could potentially contaminate
your products or cause injury to your
employees? Compressed air is commonly
used in the food industry as a conveyor,
as a power source for equipment and
valves, to open packaging, and to clean
the lines. In some cases, it is even used
as direct injection into the product. But,
if not managed properly, air can present
a potential source for microbiological,
chemical, or physical contamination.
In 1991, the International Standards
Organization (ISO) established ISO
8573, which provides compressed-air
quality standards, encompassing the
equipment selection and design and
monitoring the resulting quality (test
methods). A compressed air system is
composed of multiple components that
need to be designed, installed, maintained, and monitored by knowledgeable
individuals to ensure the air does not
provide a potential contamination source
to your product.

COMPRESSOR PLACEMENT
The quality of the intake air has a direct
impact on the functionality of the system.
The best, rst step of the system is the
placement of the compressor. Since compressors are loud, they are typically placed
in a back room. Ensure that this area is
10 MARCH/APRIL 2012 AIB UPDATE

SED AIR

Food Safety

Robin Amsbary &


Jon Anderson
clean and screened to keep out insects, and
that chemicals or other sources of fumes
are not stored there. Also, reduce or vent
other motors being exhausted in the area
to limit the concern of hydrocarbons from
the exhaust fumes.
PRE-COMPRESSOR FILTER
Typically, there is a 40 micron lter at the
compressors air intake. This rst lters
purpose is to extend the life of the compressor and downstream lters.
COMPRESSOR
An air compressor is essentially a huge
vacuum cleanersucking in everything
within its immediate environment. The air
molecules are then compressed to achieve
the desired pressure.
This generates a great deal of heat,
so various methods are used to cool the
compressor, including oil, water, and
air. Oil is not an appropriate cooling
method for compressed air that is used
for direct or indirect product contact use.
All compressors, even oil-free varieties,
use lubricants; however, the lubrication
areas are sealed to prevent leaks into the
compression chamber.

Compressed air is commonly used in the food


industry as a conveyor, as a power source for
equipment and valves, to open packaging, and to
clean the lines.

POST-COMPRESSOR FILTER
During compression, moisture from the
air and oil from the hydrocarbons (fumes
from equipment) are also compressed,
causing droplets to form. These droplets
need to be removed. Oil droplets are
typically removed by a coalescent lter.
A compressed-air coalescent lter is composed of tightly packed, ne-glass bers.
The air passing through the bers causes
droplets to condense and drip to the botAIB UPDATE MARCH/APRIL 2012 11

Food Safety
tom of the lter house. Check your equipment manufacturers recommendations;
however, the following sequence of lters
is typically installed to improve air quality
and increase the life of the coalescent lter.
s !GENERALlLTERWHICHREMOVESLARGE
particles of 30 to 40 microns
s !SECONDlLTERWHICHISEFFECTIVEIN
removing down to ve microns
s 4HECOALESCENTlLTERDEPENDINGON
the unit purchased) which lters oil
down to 0.01 microns
s !N OPTIONAL ACTIVATED CARBON lLTER
which is commonly used to absorb or
remove trace odors if the compressed
air is injected into the product.

rial and the method of connecting the


pipes (typically threaded with soft cast
iron ttings). These xtures are subject
to rust and corrosion, presenting the
potential of both physical hazards and
microbiological harborage sites. If the
compressed air is injected directly into
the product or used on product contact
surfaces, additional air treatment and a
different pipe construction is indicated.

END-POINT FILTRATION
Before compressed air is injected directly
into product or used on product contact
surfaces, it should have additional ltration to remove any potential contamination that was introduced by the piping.
The lters can plug (reducing air ow) After this ltration, the delivery piping
or channel (bypass the ltration), so each should be constructed of 316-stainless
needs to be included in the preventive steel.
Micron ltration is based on the use
maintenance program. In addition, the
coalescent lter housing/trap needs to of the compressed air. Again, refer to
be routinely monitored and emptied the industry or the ISO standard for the
to prevent the condensed oil and water ltration that is appropriate for your use.
The maximum micron lter outlined in
ESSENTIALLY A
the AIB Consolidated
HUGE VACUUM
Standards for Inspection is ve microns for
CLEANER, AN AIR
non-microbiologicalCOMPRESSOR
ly sensitive materials.
SUCKS IN
However, based on
the product produced
EVERYTHING IN
and use of the air,
ITS IMMEDIATE
you may need to go
ENVIRONMENT.
smaller.
from re-entering the air stream. Finally,
the activated charcoal lter (carbon that
is activated with oxygen) needs to be
periodically replaced.
A desiccant dryer is the method most
commonly used to remove the compressed
water droplets. Desiccant dryers with automatic condensate drains are necessary
after the coalescent lter to remove this
condensation.
PIPING
The typical piping used to convey
compressed air is black metal, which is
forged steel pipe that has a black oxide
scale on its surface. There are some
concerns with the black steel mate12 MARCH/APRIL 2012 AIB UPDATE

MONITORING THE AIR QUALITY


The ISO standard clearly outlines how to
test the ltration efciency of your system;
however, it does not encompass testing
end-point use for micro analysis. After the
end-point use lter, a sample cock should
be installed to collect samples of the air.
There are a multitude of sampling and
testing techniques that can be used with
compressed air.
For more detail on how to collect and
test compressed air, conduct an Internet
search for compressed air microbiological sampling. There are a number
of well-written articles on this topic.
Another excellent resource is the British
Compressed Air Society, which has an

Industry Code of Practices. Its website


is www.bcas.org.uk.
EMPLOYEE SAFETY
Compressed air can be a significant
employee safety concern. High-pressure,
compressed air can and has punctured
and ripped skin and muscle. Though rare,
air that is injected into the blood stream
can cause an embolism (air bubble in the
veins).
Specific information on the use of
compressed air for cleaning purposes is
found in OSHA regulation 29 CFR 1910.
It requires that compressed air used for
cleaning purposes must be reduced to less
than 30 psi and only used with effective
chip guarding and personal protective
equipment to protect the operator and
other employees from the hazards of the
release of compressed air and ying debris.
This is important to protect the eyes and
other body parts, such as the respiratory
system, from becoming damaged as a
result of improper use. This requirement
is also necessary to prevent a back pressure
buildup in case the nozzle is obstructed.
Include these employee safety issues in
your compressed-air program:
s 2EDUCEPRESSURETOPSIIFTHENOZZLE
is dead-ended (such as a compressed
air wand, where someone can put a
hand on the end of the nozzle).
s )MPLEMENTPROCEDURESTHATINCLUDE
eye protection, consideration of
other employees and activities in the
area, and no tolerance for playing
with compressed air.
s $ONOTUSECOMPRESSEDAIRTOCLEAN
uniforms or people.
OSHA has online diagrams of a few
acceptable means of reducing the pressure
to 30 psi. These are available at www.osha.
gov/OshDoc/Directive_attach/STD_113_1_STD_01-13-001-Attachment.pdf.
SUMMARY
A compressed air system is comprised
of multiple components that need to be
designed, maintained, and monitored to
ensure the air does not become a source
of product contamination. AIB

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