FILLING OF CORROSIVE HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS

Filling Of Corrosive Household Products: Why Is Long-term Investment Still A Preferable Option?

Corrosive formulas are unlikely to vanish soon

Despite different evolutions on mature and emerging markets, sales of household cleaning products are still growing at reasonable pace on a worldwide scale.

Although environmental concern might affect the sales of some specific products in favor of « natural » cleaning agents, the efficiency benefit remains on the side of more corrosive formulas which will still be around for a long time.

Among this corrosive products, bleach is the one that probably has the most promising future: first, it can enter a majority of households in countries where hygiene level is still under development and where consumers look for cleaning and sanitization functions at an affordable cost; second, it meets the expectations  of households affected by a loss of purchasing power by offering a multi-functional solution that favorably replaces different task-specific cleaning products.

For all these reasons, the future of corrosive household cleaning products seems not blurred enough to stop considering their manufacturing on the long term.

“ When properly designed and built to withstand contact with corrosive products, a filling machine can generate yearly maintenance costs that represent less than 1% of the acquisition cost. “

Acquisition cost has to be balanced with TCO and OEE

Aggressive products can significantly reduce machine’s lifetime if they are not designed to be corrosion-proof. Spilled liquids can seep in the machine body and spread corrosion across components, thus generating high maintenance costs and machine downtime.

When properly designed and built to withstand contact with corrosive products, a filling machine can generate yearly maintenance costs that represent less than 1% of the acquisition cost. With less breakdowns and maintenance operations, the overall availability of the machine is obviously higher and production can be conducted without trouble over a longer period.

Corrosion-proof design not only means to use chemical resistant materials for sensitive parts. Higher robustness must be sought after for all components, through specific materials, coatings, and protection methods (such as overpressure for electrical parts

and mechanical drives). Minimizing the number of welds in the machine design also contributes to extend its lifetime.

Proactive protection of the equipment is essential as well since it avoids repeated contact with corrosive products where not intended. Proactive protection is obtained through a clean production environment (less drips, for example), full mastery of corrosive fumes, operational reliability and high cleanability.

Operators’ safety is essential as well

Machines that are specifically designed for corrosive products can include a whole array of options to secure that operators are not exposed to harmful substances.

Customized design better suits specific product requirements Corrosion depends

Corrosion depends on several parameters, such as chemical composition, temperature, abrasiveness, pressure or fluid velocity, which can vary significantly from one product to another.

Since various corrosion-proof materials can be used in the building of the filling machine, and no single combination proves ideal for every product, design should always be carried out in close partnership with the end-user. With his own parameters in mind, he will be able to guide the machine manufacturer towards the proper choice of materials for the environment considered and thus benefit from the longest possible lifetime for his machine.

As we can see, from ROI point of view, several arguments plead in favor of machines specifically designed to withstand corrosion over a long operational lifetime. However, to win the final decision, such machines still have to be flexible enough to make sure they will be able to adapt market evolutions over the long term.