Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is offering the perfect sealing material to avoid the problem of flavour transfer during the beverage bottling process. If the wrong elastomer is used, a new batch can taste like the previous one, even though the facilities were cleaned between batches.
The biggest difficulty in beverage production is the rapid changeover from one product to the next, which makes well thought-out process optimisation and batch sequences indispensable. This involves the efficient planning of the bottling process, as well as guaranteeing the desires taste of the individual batches. Freudenberg Sealing Technologies can provide sealing materials optimally suited to the process media, to help prevent unnecessary downtimes caused by constantly changing seals.
The effect that the aromatics used for different flavourings have on elastomers has not been researched in depth yet; therefore the resistance of the elastomer to these substances, as well as its absorption and release rates with regard to them, can only be assessed depending on the composition and chemical characteristics of the aromatics and the mixture ratios.
Ideally, elastomers should withstand corrosive cleaning media, be resistant to all products offered by the bottler in question, and offer a long service life.
Freudenberg’s 70 EPDM 291 provides very good resistance to nearly all conventional cleaning media. Cleaning at 82°C in CIP media and sterilisation at 149°C is possible, while heat resistance in water up to 180°C (short-term to 210°C) provides a substantially higher resistance to water steam compared to other EPDM compounds. This material is best suited for mineral water production, meeting a variety of drinking water standards worldwide.
Fluoroprene XP 41, a material suitable for the entire processing industry, combines very good performance in cleaning media with unsurpassed resistance to oils and fats, remaining stable in temperatures ranging from -15 to +200°C.
No matter what beverage is being bottled, the seals from Freudenberg Sealing Technologies will minimise or even completely avoid flavour transfer between batches.
