Having worked in the filling workshop for more than 20 years, Lao Li always likes to say: "Selecting materials is like choosing armor for people-in front of sour soup and spicy water, you can tell whether it is a mule or a horse by walking around twice." This is rough but true. Last year, when they renovated the fluid filling and packaging machine for a hot sauce factory in the southwest, the stainless steel pipes they originally used only lasted for three months, and the interface was corroded like honeycomb coal, and red oil seeped everywhere. This incident made me understand: for the job of high-temperature fluid filling, if the material is not selected correctly, no matter how good the machine is, it will break down.
In recent years, our factory has received more and more chemical orders, from strong acid cleaning agents to boiling syrups, and fluid filling and packaging machines have become "touchstones". Last month, a customer who makes concentrated fruit juice came to our door in a hurry: "Can your equipment fill 90¡æ fruit acid solution? Other machines have been used for less than half a year, and the sealing rings are rotten like overcooked noodles!" This sounds heartbreaking, but after careful consideration, the problem lies in the materials - ordinary rubber becomes sticky when heated, and plastic parts cannot withstand acid and alkali. How can this be a trivial matter?
To talk about the selection of corrosion-resistant materials, we really have to use actual cases to speak. The year before last, we renovated the fluid filling and packaging machine for a seafood processing plant in the coastal area. They filled 60¡æ seafood sauce, which was high in salt and had a fishy smell. The original 304 stainless steel was corroded and rusted, and the assembly line went on strike every day. Our technical team held a meeting overnight and finally decided to use Hastelloy as the contact surface and replace the sealing ring with fluororubber. Guess what? During a return visit last week, the workshop director pointed to the shiny filling head and laughed: "It's been two years, and there's not even a rust star!" However, corrosion resistance cannot be achieved by just spending money on precious metals. Last year, we helped a small and medium-sized vinegar factory upgrade its fluid filling and packaging machine. The boss had a tight budget. After thinking for a long time, we applied a ceramic coating on the inner wall of the filling valve, which reduced the cost by 40%. Now they fill 3,000 bottles of aged vinegar every day, and the equipment has never leaked. The old masters all said: "This coating is more durable than stainless steel, and it can't be eroded by the acid mist." The high-temperature filling and sealing technology that has been popular in the chemical industry recently is actually a matter of materials. The most typical project we did for a pesticide company last quarter was the one they filled with 80°C herbicide concentrate, and ordinary silicone gaskets deformed when exposed to heat. We tried seven composite materials and finally chose graphite-filled polytetrafluoroethylene. On the day of production, the customer stared at the silky filling line on the monitoring screen and smacked his lips: "I've heard that high-temperature fluid filling requires careful selection of materials, but I didn't expect that you can even control the bad temper of pesticides." Of course, material selection is not done behind closed doors. There is a "shame rack" in the northeast corner of our workshop all year round, on which are hung corroded parts: blackened gears, cracked pipes, powdered seals... These are all returned by customers. The new technician was shocked when he saw this for the first time, but the old master smiled and said: "These are all treasures! Without the lessons learned from them, how would we know how stable Hastelloy is in hydrochloric acid? How would we know that polyetheretherketone can be soaked in steam for three years?" Now is the peak production season for the jam factory, and customers consult about high-temperature fluid filling every few days. Yesterday, a boss who makes hot pot base was walking around the workshop. He touched our special duplex steel filling head and asked: "Can this iron lump really withstand boiling butter?" I threw the sample directly into the 120¡æ chili oil and soaked it: "Come back next month. If there is a slight discoloration, we will give this equipment away for free!"
In the final analysis, the fluid filling and packaging machine is like an iron man, and corrosion-resistant materials are its golden bell cover. Next time if you encounter headaches such as filling valve leakage and pipeline corrosion, don't rush to replace the whole machine - come to our factory for a cup of tea, and we will definitely pick a pair of "armor" for you. After all, I have been in this business for more than 20 years. What kind of sour, salty, bitter and spicy have I not seen? If you choose the right materials, high-temperature fluid filling can still be done!
