Materials and Methods

Abstract

The invention relates to a substrate intended in use to contact a fouling agent, the substrate including a coating comprising polysaccharide, which coating serves to reduce or prevent fouling of the substrate caused by contact from the fouling agent, in comparison to an equivalent uncoated substrate. The invention also relates to the anti-fouling coating, to apparatus comprising such coating and to related methods of reducing or preventing fouling of a substrate intended in use to contact a fouling agent.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to anti-fouling coatings and to substrates and apparatus comprising such coatings. The invention also relates to methods of coating substrates that serve to reduce or prevent the fouling on such coated substrates in comparison to equivalent uncoated substrates.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]There are a wide range of situations where substrates come into contact with fouling agents that give rise to deposition onto the substrate over time. For example, fouling is common in marine and aquatic environments, on substrates such as domestic appliances, glass or other surfaces. Heat exchangers and other machinery that come into contact with water (particularly hard water) will be subject to fouling or scaling over time and many components of food and beverage processing equipment and other industrial machinery or appliances will often experience unwanted plaque build-up or fouling. Depending upon the context, fouling of substrates...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a way to make a substrate that doesn't get fuzzed when it comes in contact with a fuzzing agent. This is done by coating the substrate with a special sugar called polysaccharide. This makes the substrate resistant to fouling by the fuzzing agent, which can help to keep it clean and function properly. This can be useful in various applications where the substrate comes in contact with fuzzing agents.

Problems solved by technology

For example, fouling is common in marine and aquatic environments, on substrates such as domestic appliances, glass or other surfaces.

Heat exchangers and other machinery that come into contact with water (particularly hard water) will be subject to fouling or scaling over time and many components of food and beverage processing equipment and other industrial machinery or appliances will often experience unwanted plaque build-up or fouling.

Depending upon the context, fouling of substrates can be unsightly, can give rise to hygiene or health and safety issues, can necessitate costly down time of equipment and maintenance / cleaning costs as well as reducing the efficiency of equipment operation.

The dairy industry is one that is particularly affected by the fouling of equipment, requiring frequent and expensive cleaning steps to restore equipment performance following fouling.

Not only are the cost of cleaning and the down time of equipment significant problems, but the necessary cleaning steps require the use of water, energy and chemical cleaning agents such as strong acids and / or alkali that are not environmentally friendly.

Milk fouling in the dairy industry is particularly severe due to the thermal instability of the milk system (Changani and Belmar-Beiny 1997).

However, if it is overcooked it can become brown in colour and very much harder.

The unwanted deposition on the surfaces of heat exchanger apparatus (in both the dairy industry and in other contexts) represents an additional thermal resistance to heat transfer, which reduces the thermal-hydraulic performance for the heat transfer equipment.

While such coatings have changed the fouling behaviour of heat exchangers coated by these means, the results have not been commercially acceptable (Beuf, M., G. Rizzo, et al.

For example, the reduction in fouling has either not been significant or the coatings have resulted in other problems such as de-lamination or shedding into the product stream, degradation of the substrate or product contamination.

Water scaling is problematic in many industries, particularly where hard water is involved.

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