This article by Automation Service marketing manager Missy Knight was recently published on Food Industry Executive. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full article.
Valves are ubiquitous in food and beverage processing. Valve Magazine senior editor Kate Kunkel put it well when she wrote:
“Whether it’s cereal, breakfast pastries, cookies or canned peaches, everything must be either steamed, dehydrated, pulverized, pasteurized, or otherwise treated to fit into the cans, boxes and cellophane packages. For every one of those processes, valves are employed in many ways…”
Between food-contact processes and handling utilities like water and steam, a typical food plant can have upwards of 1,000 control valves installed.
Given their importance, you’d think control valves would get a lot of attention. But, the truth is they usually don’t. Control valves are frequently neglected, which can reduce productivity and lead to unnecessary expenses.