Manufacturing

Customer
Largest Cosmetic Manufacturer on the East Coast

Application
Wash & Sterilize Filling Machine Parts

Background
This cosmetic company is the world’s leader in the manufacturing of high quality cosmetics. At present, they are responsible for the production of nearly ten (10) different brands. Integral to this manufacturing process is the ability to wash the various cosmetics (i.e. foundations, lotions, water-proof mascara, shampoos, etc) from the filling machines when changing color batches.

Problem
The complexity of this type of manufacturing (JIT) posed a series of problems:

1) Their previous cleaning method involved manual cleaning and sterilization which was labor intensive and time consuming.

2) Several different size parts needed to be washed, rinsed, dried, and sanitized.

3) The wide variety of cosmetic products being removed from these parts made choosing a common detergent difficult.

4) It was necessary to record critical information from each cleaning cycle (i.e. cycle times, water temperature, and air dry temperatures) to provide documentation to the FDA.

5) Lastly, it was imperative that all parts be free of any bacteria because contaminants would result in the loss of an entire batch.

Solution
Better Engineering designed a cleaning system that exceeded the customers Engineering and Quality Control Departments expectations. This system washed, rinsed, dried, and sterilized the various parts in one fully automated process. Special fixturing was created to hold the many differently shaped pump and filler components. A unique detergent was formulated to remove the many different cosmetic residues. In addition, a customized PLC was programmed to automatically download all relevant information of each cleaning cycle. The system proved to be effective in removing and destroying all bacterial contaminants.

System
A Stainless Steel F-4000 Dual Tank (one tank is high volume wash, the other is a high volume rinse) PCS Unit with a computer to record all cycle information. This information is then retained for future reference or supplied to the FDA for regulatory compliance.

Special Notes
In the last six month period, the number of rejected products due to bacteria contamination was lowered by 63% with the machine only used part time. Now that the machine is in full use, they are looking to lower the rate 30% more in the next six months. Also, due to the controlled cleaning ability, this company is saving more than 40,000 gallons of water per month.

2/10/97