Thinking about cable management with EHEDG

The thought of cleanliness and freedom from cable ties was a key theme at this week’s SDT Autumn Meeting, along with Dairy Industries Expo‘s presentation by Ing. Michael Evers, international business development manager at Niedax Group in the Netherlands, and a European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) board member on hygienic cabling in the food plant. He asked, “Why is food safety important? The issue of a food recall, due to allergens, foreign bodies or out-of-spec product, can result in many detrimental effects: the cost of a recall is very high, it can cause brand and reputation damage and a company can be out of business in no time with social media.

“With updated European legislation, DIN EN 1672-2:2020, it is more focused on processing areas, and how to deal with food safety and hygienic design. The rules state this: open hollow profiles shall not be used for routing of cables and pipes. If for technical reasons hollow profiles are unavoidable, they shall be sealed. Open type trays and supports shall be used wherever possible. Flexible cables and pipes shall not be bundled. Cable ties shall not be used or shall be removable. Flexible cables and pipes shall be routed loosely in open supports so they can move during the cleaning process.”

Hazards for the factory in the cabling can be: biological hazards, such as spoiling and food poisoning, chemical hazards, or physical hazards, such as injury to employees.

“Hygienic design doesn’t lead to more costs – rather, once it’s operational, it can help deal with cable management inside the production area,” Evers noted. The open tray and the use of springs instead of cable ties meant the cleaning could be more comprehensive, while the use of more remote I/O and wireless controls means that there can be fewer cables inside a food production area.

The Dutch EHEDG national working party asked cleaners how the process could be made easier. The result was to avoid the cable bundles, not to put things too tight to the wall, or outside the reach of the cleaner. By using springs instead of the cable ties on an open system with a welded bar and a removable spring, all the cables are fixed inside the spring without cable ties.

As for practical cable laying, the installation is very quick. A test was run for cable cleaning where the cleaners were not told how to clean, and the results compared the traditional assemblies and the spring ones. As Evers noted, “We started with the food companies, because they need the clean requirements.” The guidelines also look into things such as tags, labelling and so forth. Adopters of the spring technology have found that replacing a cable is quicker and easier, and companies such as Unilever have now foregone cable ties and used this system.