For food processing and medical instruments manufacturing and handling facilities, absolute cleanliness is critical. And, production lines and hygiene belts need to be spotlessly clean. A new research has come way resulting in the development of a mobile cleaning device to hit the mark. The device enables sanitization of equipment and production spaces to a standard that are reproducible.
The robot is equipped with self-learning and autonomous motility systems. This enables the root to automatically detect degree of fouling and select the appropriate cleaning procedure.
Meanwhile, industrial food production facilities have zero room for hygiene related compromises. Manufacturing equipment and rooms need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Biofilms and other fouling deposits strictly do not keep hold under any circumstances. Resultantly, cleaning efforts make an impact on hygiene and food safety.
Device to address incapacities of manual Cleaning
While cleaning plants and equipment is a demanding task, and a determining factor of quality, much of the work is still done manually. However, despite vigilance of committed cleaning crews – manual work is hard to reproduce, subject to errors, and time-consuming.
This prompted a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and packaging at Dresden to develop a scalable cleaning robot – two variants of the system are now up and running. Of the two, one traverses the production assembly on a conveyor belt to clean the equipment from inside. While, the other cleans the ceilings, floor and walls of rooms and outer surface of machines. An extendable robot arm bearing a rotary jet cleaner can extend to reach high spots on the production line.
The mobile machine goes by the name Mobile Cleaning Device 4.0 (MCD) that has the ability to scoot across the shop floor independently.