Since using cryogenic cleaning technology from Polar
Intelligent Cleaning Solutions on its weighing and packing
machines, fresh produce pre-packer Turners PPL has cut the
time it takes to strip down, clean, refurbish and reassemble
machines from five days to just two, maximising machine
availability and minimising downtime costs

Based in Newmarket, Turners PPL is
part of Turners (Soham), a transport
company that specialises in
temperature-controlled distribution and
bulk tanker operations. For more than six
years, it has acted as a supply hub for Tesco,
providing pre-pack solutions on a range of
citrus fruit products imported worldwide. In
total, the site pre-packs around 50 million
citrus units per year in ‘wine glass’ or ‘giro’
packaging. Its weighing and packing machines
are critical to site operations and profitability.

Antony Taylor, head of operations at
Turners PPL, says: “As you can imagine, citrus
fruit is a very messy product for machines to
deal with. For example, in just a matter of
hours, the wax coating applied to
the fruit can come off during
the packing process and is
deposited on parts of the
machine and ancillary
equipment, including
mechanical and electrical
components. Sticky labels
applied to the fruit add to
this problem.We operate 11
machines on a 24/7 basis
and cleaning and
maintaining the machines is
critical to what we do here.”
Because the machines
operate 24/7, preventive
maintenance is key says
Taylor: “In an ideal world, we
would schedule in the removal of a machine
for a five-day period for a complete strip
down, clean, refurbish and assemble.

However, because of the wax build up, within
a typical six-month period we would have a
huge number of operational and engineering
issues to deal with on the machines due to
increasing number of faults and general
breakdowns, that it is inevitable that certain
machines would be lost at critical, busy
packing periods.”
Turners PPL used high-pressure washers
to clean the machines. However, according to
Taylor, this process was time consuming and
involved disassembling the machine first,
then removing the parts from the packing
line to a designated cleaning area outside.

The pressure washing was then carried out,
after which the machine parts were moved to
the maintenance workshop where the
machine would be refurbished and reassembled.

“This whole process required two
engineers working for five days. Obviously, if
an unexpected breakdown occurred on a
second machine while we were servicing the
first one, it could result in a failure to meet
the delivery schedule”, explains Taylor.

In June 2009, Polar ICS demonstrated its
technology at the site, by cleaning one of the
weighing and packing machines in-situ. This
took 4h and did not require engineers to
strip down or remove the machine from the
line, saving two to three days of labour time.

“Within 30 minutes of the demonstration,
I knew we could benefit from using the
technology,” enthuses Taylor. “After being dry
ice blasted, the machine parts and weighing
systems looked like brand new stainless steel
parts supplied straight from the factory. The
operator from Polar ICS was able to clean all
parts of the machine by switching to different
shaped nozzles when required. I was so
impressed that we are currently considering
whether we can use Polar ICS to clean other
non-machine assets at our site.”
How does it work?
The technology is based on dry ice (or
cryogenic) blasting, and is non-toxic, nonconductive
and non-abrasive. Small dry ice
pellets are accelerated in a jet of compressed air.

The low temperature (-79°C) of the pellets
makes the coating brittle, which cracks and
loosens the surface, allowing the dry ice to
permeate the coating.Dry ice then passes from
solid state to vapour, which leads to a 700-fold
increase in volume, an explosive effect that lifts
the coating off the surface. Dry ice vapourises
immediately on contact with treated surfaces.

There is no secondary waste material; the
only waste from the process is the coating that
has been dislodged, which can be swept or
vacuumed. This also means the technology
can be used to clean difficult-to-reach surfaces.

“By collaborating closely with Polar ICS,we’ve
now set up a revised maintenance and cleaning
plan. This is based on a joint agreement of what
both parties believe can be achieved in a certain
time period. Once a fortnight, a Polar ICS service
engineer comes to site to clean two machines
in situ, which takes one day to complete.

This means that our preventive maintenance
on any one machine now takes just one to
two days maximum, a significant reduction.

In addition, we only ever have one out of 11
machines out of operation,” adds Taylor.