Hygiene is the top priority in the manufacture of food and beverages. Food grade O-rings used in processing equipment have to withstand high temperatures and chemicals produced by raw materials like caramelised sugar and acidic citrus juice.
In dairies, they have to withstand fatty and protein-containing products in the long-term, while contending with alkaline cleaning products that flush the system during cleaning.
Let's examine the qualities a food grade O-ring must have to withstand the challenges of the food and beverage industry.
Flavour transfer and corrosion
Imagine a vending machine that delivers a number of different drinks, each relying on various combinations of chemicals for its flavour. Some of these chemicals are rubber solvents, which means they corrode ordinary rubber O-rings and reduce their performance. A more sophisticated material must be used instead.
Seals can also retain and transfer the taste of one food/drink batch’s flavour to another as it passes through the machine – chocolate to strawberry for example.
Food grade O-rings must be able to combat the tendency to both corrode due to chemicals in the product and to transfer the flavour of one batch of product to the next.
Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ Fluoprene XP is a recommended O-ring material for hygienically demanding applications in the food and beverage industry. It has a proven minimisation of flavour transfer in numerous tests.
Fat, sugar and chocolate
When making chocolate, fatty ingredients are sometimes heated to very high temperature. Seals used in ice-cream production cope with extreme temperature fluctuations, while pieces of fruit and crystallised sugar cause seal abrasion in jam production.
These food grade O-rings handle cocoa butter, powder and sugar mass exceptionally well:
- 75 Fluoroprene XP 40
- 75 Simriz 484 / 494
- 70 FKM 37508
- 78 VMQ 166898
- 70 VMQ 117055
The right combination of materials ensures that hygiene, durability and non-contamination of O-rings remains consistent throughout the processing and cleaning stages of production.
Using the interactive food grade O-ring guide
The Freudenberg O-Ring Configurator helps you find O-rings for a manufacturing system based on given parameters.
These include whether the system is hydraulic/pneumatic, bore and shaft diameters, as well as the seal material suited to that system. Use the O-ring Configurator to find options across the entire Freudenberg seal range.