What are some common sanitary fittings used in beer brewing equipment?
What are some common sanitary fittings used inbeer brewing equipment?
a. Clamped connections.
Clamped commonly involve a gasket and a clamp.
1. The Tri-clamp fitting
It is the most commonly used sanitary fitting in small and medium-sized breweries. The fitting has two same ferrules with flat faces, the ferrule contains a machined groove which designed for an elastomer gasket that is sandwiched between the ferrules. A clamp is used to tighten the fitting, compressing the gasket to form a seal.
2. The Swagelock TS series fitting
It is a new style of fitting which is based on the sanitary clamp connection but it designed to prevent over-tightening of the clamp and extrusion of the gasket into the product flow.
3. The Waukesha Cherry-Burrell I-line fitting
It is made up of a female and a male ferrule that slip together for a self-aligning fit. There is a flat gasket is put between the ferrules, and connected by a clamp. The I-line fitting is most commonly used in high-pressure applications.
b.Threaded fittings.
Threaded fittings have the same sanitary features with clamped fittings but it used a nut to connect and tighten the fitting. The threads on the nuts and the female portion of the fitting are not easy to touch the product and easy to clean.
One of the key advantages is that they are difficult to disassemble when under pressure, since the line pressure tightens the nut against a landing used to tighten the nut into the fitting. In addition, if the threaded fitting is disconnected accidentally while in use, it is much easier to reconnect than a clamped fitting.
1.John Perry fitting
They are similar with I-line fitting on design except the female portion has threads on the outside and the male portion is tightened into place with a large hex nut. Since the nut slips over the male portion, John Perry fittings are similar to a pipe union and can be rotated without twisting the male and female fittings about the gasket.
2.DIN(or DN) sanitary fittings
They are also finding acceptance in U.S. breweries. These fittings have a part called a liner and a nut and a male portion with a machined groove to capture and hold an elastomer O-ring gasket in place. The nut on the outside is smooth, with the notches designed to fit a spanner wrench. DIN fittings can also be rotated without rotating the mating portions. These fittings are most commonly used on equipment manufactured in Europe, but they can be purchased in the United States. Since the DIN fittings can be used with tubing which the size with the diameter is specified in inches to reach the DIN standard, but their tube ends are sized for butt welding with inch-sized tubing that can be mated with standard U.S. tubing.
3.SMS fitting
They are the Swedish DIN fittings and are occasionally used on European equipment. The basic design is similar to DIN fittings, but the thread sizes and the physical dimensions are different. Since the DIN fittings, SMS fittings have a captured gasket and are tightened with a spanner wrench.
4.Bevel-seat fittings
They have precision-machined male and female portions to form a seal without a gasket. Like other threaded fittings, Bevel-seat fittings can be easily rotated. In their external appearance, they are similar to John Perry fittings, they work very well when treated properly, but the metal-to-metal seal is easily damaged if abused, they are most commonly used in dairy processing plants rather than used in breweries. We added bevel-seat piping on our recent pipe diverter to give more options for brewers.
