What are the current trends on the topic of “resilience in the food industry”? What are the new developments in intelligent cleaning systems and technologies for efficient, sustainable cleaning processes? These were the key questions addressed at the third edition of the expert forum “Future Days: Future Clean”, which recently took place in Dresden/Germany.

Within the framework of the cooperation event of the Fraunhofer IVV and the IVLV Industrievereinigung für Lebensmitteltechnologie und Verpackung e. V., participants from industry, research and associations were able to intensively inform themselves about and exchange ideas on solutions and the latest technology developments for the current challenges in the food industry. In addition, there was the opportunity to try out some of the presented technologies as life demonstrators.

The first day of the event focused on the particularly topical subject of “resilience in food production”. In this context, companies or production systems that are always able to adapt to internal and external changes and disruptions in complex, rapidly changing production and value-added networks, and that deliver safe and high-quality products even under changing conditions, are considered “resilient”. Anselm Elles from AFC Risk and Crisis Consult opened by introducing risk management in the context of resilience. He presented risk factors and requirements that the safeguarding of resilient processes places on the risk management of companies and explained a holistic risk management system.

Recalls and resilience – they go together. Stephanie Weinand from Recall InfoLink came to this conclusion in her presentation. She showed how a systematic, fast and documented implementation of recalls in combination with transparent communication with all stakeholders in the value chain can contribute to resilient processes.

Dr Marc Mauermann from the Fraunhofer IVV closed the lecture block with a presentation of current survey results on the factors influencing resilient processes in the food industry. The survey showed that investment in machinery and equipment for production as well as the digitalization of process chains are rated as the most important contributions to ensuring resilient processes.

The topical block made it clear that companies must prepare specifically for any disruptions and problems that may occur in order to minimize the damage in an emergency by acting quickly. However, there is still a clear need for research, especially with regard to the disruption scenarios with the greatest probability of occurrence and the greatest impact.

In the second block of topics, the participants were able to learn about innovative cyber-physical cleaning systems that – each in its own way – represent a novelty. First of all, an autonomously operating jet cleaner for the on-demand cleaning of surfaces, for example in tanks, was presented: The AJCsens, with its highly integrated inline sensor technology for contamination detection, makes it possible for the first time to record the current contamination status in real time and thus to move away from cleaning design based on the worst-case scenario.

The Advisim3D simulation tool for industrial spray cleaning processes, subsequently presented by Norbert Ebersbach from Advitec Informatik, also contributes to counteract oversizing of cleaning processes – and this right from the design phase. In contrast to the use of conventional simulation software, the cleaning processes can be designed and tested within only a few minutes.

The topical block was concluded with the presentation of a virtual cleaning assistant for manual cleaning processes: The CleanAssist enables quality assurance and documentation of manual cleaning processes by means of a sensor-monitored cleaning lance, augmented reality (AR) and intelligent data processing.

The solutions presented in this topical block show that safe and traceable cleaning is possible through the clever integration of inline sensor technology and the use of digital solutions. In addition, the technologies presented allow significant resource savings and thus make a considerable contribution to cost reduction and environmental protection.

The second day of the event offered an insight into the topic of pollution sensors. First, Dr Peter Golz from the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) presented new inline cleaning sensors for monitoring the contamination status in closed systems, which were developed and tested in the BMBF SensoRein project.

In the follow-up lecture, Dr Enrico Fuchs from the Fraunhofer IVV presented further sensor technologies for open and closed systems. The speaker gave a comprehensive overview of the possibilities and limits of sensor technology for monitoring pollution.

The presentations made it clear that the trend in the food industry is still clearly moving from offline to inline detection of contamination. However, as there is no universal solution so far, there is a need for further research and development.

Following the sensor technology block, innovative processes and devices for removing contamination were presented. Felix Wallner from MultSonic kicked off with an ultrasonic anti-fouling system for various applications. By introducing extremely small vibrations into the component, this system minimizes the adhesion of dirt and thus significantly increases the interval between cleaning cycles.

The connection between chemical cleaning agents and the crypto world was the topic of the presentation by Christian Römlein from Intelligent Fluids. In addition to the special mode of operation of his cleaning agent, he explained the idea behind SMAC as a cryptocurrency for the discounted purchase of cleaning chemicals.

Olaf von Deines from Frank Hochdruck- & Dampftechnologie concluded the topical block. He presented a novel solution for chemical-free, resource-saving cleaning of conveyor belts using steam.

It became clear that the topic of sustainability is also becoming increasingly important in the field of cleaning. This is shown by approaches such as SMAC or the use of chemical-free steam cleaning, as well as the efforts to achieve significantly longer plant operating times by avoiding deposits (anti-fouling).