DEVICE FOR THE PIPING OF PROCESS SYSTEMS IN THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

摘要

The invention relates to a device for the piping of process systems in the food and beverage industry, according to the preamble of independent claim 1 or independent claim 2. The invention is particularly applicable in situations where the process systems serving for product processing and product transfer must meet stringent microbiological quality requirements and requirements for maximal cleanability under flow conditions (so-called "CIP capability"). It is the object of the invention to devise a device for piping, of a general described type, which device has high operating safety and meets the highest requirements for quality of the fluid products processed in it, which device overall, including its anti-mixing valves, is also easy and inexpensive to fabricate, and which, under all practically occurring arrangement variants of the valve distributor tree in relation to the associated process aggregate or tank of the process apparatus, in the respective valve distributor tree, reproduces, to the extent possible, the same technological conditions and condition parameters as in the process aggregate or tank. This problem is solved, in that: (a) the respective valve distributor tree (B1, B2, ..., Bi, ..., B n) opens immediately into the lower tank bottom (T1a, T2a, ..., Tia, ..., Tna) of a respectively associated tank (T; T1, T2, ..., Ti, ..., Tn) of the process system; (b) the respective valve distributor tree (B1, B2, ..., Bi, ..., B n) is connected via an associated pipe connection (R; R1, R2, ..., Ri, ..., Rn; Ux.1; U1.1, U2.1, U3.1, ..., Ui.1, ..., Un.1) to an associated process aggregate (P; P1, P2, ..., Pi, ..., Pn; P**; P1**, P2**, ..., Pi**, ..., Pn**) or to the lower tank bottom (T1a , T2a, ..., Tia, ..., Tna) of the tank (T*; T1*, T2*, ..., Ti*, ..., Tn*; T**; T1**, T2**, ..., Ti**, ..., Tn**), and the pipe connection (R; Ux.1) opens out into the tank-side or process-aggregate-side end of the valve distributor tree (B1, B2, ..., Bi, ..., Bn); (c) a stirring device (16) which is operative in the entire interior space of the hollow structure (B1a, B2a, ..., Bia, ..., Bna) is disposed in the valve distributor tree (B1, B2, ..., Bi, ..., Bn); (d) the valve distributor tree (B1, B2, ..., Bi, ..., Bn) with the entire interior space of the hollow structure (B1, B2, ..., Bi, ..., Bn) is part of a circulation line (U; U1, U2, U3, ..., Ui, ..., Un) which extends over the tank (T; T*; T**) or the process aggregate (P, P**); and in that the device comprises one of the following combinations (i, ii, iii) of features ((a), (b), (c), and (d)): (i) features [(a) and (c)], or features [(a) and (d)]; (ii) features [(b) and (c)], or features [(b) and (d)]; (iii) features [(a) and (b) and (c)], or features [(a) and (b) and (d)].