Coloured Blue For Easy Detection
Bearings specialist igus UK now offers a range of bearing products that are blue in colour for easier detection in the food and drinks industry. The new iglidur A350 polymer plain bearing material is FDA-approved (Food and Drug Administration USA) and the igubal polymer material can also be recognised by metal detectors; both materials are manufactured completely from tribo-optimised plastic.
In the UK the contamination of food is illegal under The Food Safety Act 1990, that states: ‘It shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence by himself or by a person under his control.’
“The use of a visually detectable product with a colour not naturally found very often in nature is a reasonable precaution,” explains Matt Aldridge of igus UK. “For this reason, blue-coloured products have become the de facto standard – blue-coloured items, ranging from plasters to hair nets, are now widely used in food preparation areas and large scale mass produced food lines, which is why we’ve developed a blue range of bearings designed specifically for this industry.”
The igus iglidur A350 polymer plain bearing material is FDA-approved, which means that it can touch food and, should, in the unlikely event that particles contaminate food, be ingested without causing harm to the person. Highly wear-resistant, iglidur A350 can handle long-term temperature exposure up to 180degC and is resistant to a variety of chemicals and other liquid media. This makes the blue polymer material ideal for applications in the food, packaging and bottle-filling industries that undergo regular steam and chemical cleaning processes. Delivering low coefficients of friction, the iglidur A350 plain bearing is also corrosion-resistant, lubrication- and maintenance-free.
For use in the food and drinks industry, a blue variant of the igus igubal range is made of detectable plastic. When these special igubal bearings are fitted to a machine, there is no possibility of any igubal parts contaminating the end product when a metal detector is fitted on the automated production line.
The igus igubal detectable plastic range includes lubricant and maintenance-free rod end bearings and clevis joints, flange, pivoting and pillow block bearings, which are suitable for dry use at application temperatures ranging from -30 to +80°C. They can run in liquids as well as chemicals, and are corrosion-resistant – so are not adversely effected by regular washdowns. In comparison to traditional metallic bearings, the igubal range offers better damping characteristics since the specially developed plastic material absorbs vibrations more effectively.
SOURCE: igus