System and method for optimizing a cleaning session of a food processing system
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial freezers face challenges in optimizing the cleaning process to ensure effective removal of food debris and pathogens, particularly due to inconsistent cleaning practices and the risk of microbiological growth, which can lead to food safety issues.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for monitoring, recording, and analyzing key metrics of the cleaning process using sensors and computing devices to optimize cleaning sessions, including temperature, humidity, and chemical concentration, with real-time feedback and dashboard displays for improving process consistency and effectiveness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual cleaning practices are used in industrial freezers, then operational simplicity is maintained, but cleaning consistency and effectiveness deteriorate leading to food safety risks
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates sensors that continuously monitor cleaning process parameters (temperature, humidity, chemical concentration) and provide real-time feedback to the control system. This feedback loop ensures cleaning consistency by automatically adjusting parameters to maintain optimal cleaning conditions, resolving the contradiction between reliability and complexity through intelligent automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The cleaning system is designed to operate autonomously without manual intervention. The control system automatically manages the entire cleaning process including spray activation, parameter adjustment, and monitoring, allowing the system to service itself and eliminate the need for manual cleaning while maintaining high effectiveness.
2Manufacturing precision
If cleaning process parameters are not monitored, then system complexity is reduced, but cleaning consistency and pathogen lethality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces manual visual inspection with automated sensor-based monitoring. Sensors continuously measure temperature, humidity, and chemical concentration parameters, substituting mechanical human observation with electronic detection systems that provide precise, objective data for maintaining cleaning consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system acts as an intermediary between the cleaning process and the monitoring parameters. It receives data from sensors, processes the information, and automatically adjusts cleaning parameters to maintain consistency, serving as a mediator that translates raw sensor data into actionable control decisions.
3Reliability
If cleaning sessions are extended to ensure thorough sanitation, then pathogen lethality is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to longer downtime
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning system dynamically adjusts parameters such as spray duration, chemical concentration, and temperature based on real-time sensor feedback and historical data. This dynamic optimization allows the system to achieve thorough sanitation in reduced time by concentrating cleaning effort where and when it is most needed, rather than using fixed extended cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system optimizes cleaning effectiveness by precisely controlling and adjusting key parameters (temperature, humidity, chemical concentration, spray pressure) to optimal values. By maintaining parameters within optimal ranges, the system achieves rapid and thorough pathogen lethality without requiring extended cleaning durations, thus preserving productivity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances cleaning efficiency and safety by providing real-time insights into the cleaning process, ensuring effective pathogen lethality and consistent sanitation, thereby reducing the risk of microbiological growth and improving food safety.
Implementation Method 1
a processing machine having at least one sensor for performing at least one of detecting and measuring a physical property of the processing machine during a cleaning session
Implementation Method 2
the instructions, in response to execution by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to perform actions including: receiving, by the computing device, data from the at least one sensor; processing, by the computing device, the data from the at least one sensor; and displaying, by the computing device, processed sensor data as a first metric relating to at least one cleaning step
Data Source
AI summary
A system for optimizing a cleaning process of a processing machine having at least one sensor and a computing device having at least one processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium that is communicatively coupled to the processing machine and a data store and computer-executable instructions stored thereon including executing instructions by the at least one processor to cause the computing device to perform actions including: receiving, by the computing device, data from the at least one sensor; processing, by the computing device, the data from the at least one sensor; and displaying, by the computing device, processed sensor data as a first metric relating to at least one cleaning step of a selected cleaning session of the processing machine compared to an average first metric of the at least one cleaning step of a plurality of past cleaning sessions of the processing machine.