Challenge
Filling-line hoppers leave little room for hidden residue. Product buildup, detergent film, or inconsistent rinsing can compromise the next batch run through the same equipment, and a conventional wash process may not provide the repeatability pharmaceutical cleaning validation demands. The customer needed a system engineered specifically for high-precision, documented cleaning, with sufficient wash and rinse capacity to accommodate the hoppers’ size and weight, filtration to prevent particulate from redepositing onto cleaned parts, and a fully automated cycle that minimized variability from one wash to the next.
Beyond the cleanliness requirement itself, the customer also needed a way to confirm and record that cleanliness, rather than relying on visual inspection alone. Meeting that standard required instrumentation to monitor rinse quality in real time and data acquisition to document each cycle for quality review.
Approach
Better Engineering engineered the RD-4000-SAN cabinet part washer around a 40-inch turntable with 40 inches of internal vertical clearance and a 1,500-lb load capacity, sized to the customer’s 25-inch hoppers. The wash cycle runs in three stages: a heated recirculated wash, a fresh rinse, and a heated dry. The working tank holds 50 gallons and is heated electrically, with a 5 HP pump delivering 100 GPM at 60 PSI and automatic detergent injection metered by a chemical dosing pump. A pitched tank floor and fresh-water self-clean nozzles scour the tank in between cycles, and the fresh rinse stage runs on customer-supplied UPW water
Every wetted and non-wetted surface on the system is 316 stainless steel with a #2 matte finish, and the system is plumbed with tri-clamp sanitary tube. The complete system was passivated at the factory before shipment. Controls were upgraded to an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix PLC with a 10-inch color PanelView Plus HMI and Ethernet connectivity. A full data acquisition system was added, enabling the customer to capture historical data, alarms, trends, and reports for every cycle and access them through a web-based platform. The finished system underwent a factory acceptance test before it left Better Engineering.
Results
The completed RD-4000-SAN cabinet washer provided this pharmaceutical customer with an automated washing system built to the validated, repeatable cleanliness standard required by its filling operation. By pairing a heated recirculating wash with a fresh rinse, conductivity monitoring, and a heated dry stage, Better Engineering delivered a fully automated cycle that removes product residue from filling hoppers without relying on manual scrubbing or visual-only inspection.
Conclusion
In pharmaceutical manufacturing, clean is not a judgment call; it is a documented fact. The RD-4000-SAN gives this customer a way to prove it: a sanitary turntable washer engineered around its own hoppers, instrumented to verify rinse quality in real time, and backed by data acquisition that turns every wash cycle into a permanent quality record.
It’s a system built to protect the integrity of everything that moves through it, one validated cycle at a time.
Interested in finding your solution? Contact us for more information, a facility tour, or free part testing.