Month: April 2025

CIP vs. COP Systems

Hygiene and safety are top priorities for industries like food and beverage. Adopting the right cleaning techniques for manufacturing and processing equipment better ensures product quality, consumer safety, regulatory compliance, and even enhanced productivity. 

Clean-in-place (CIP) and clean-out-of-place (COP) systems enable companies to automate and improve their cleaning processes when sanitary conditions and product integrity matter most. Learn more about these systems and how high-temperature steam enhances their performance.

Understanding CIP and COP

The importance of cleaning food conveyor belts and related equipment can’t be understated. While CIP and COP systems are both powerful cleaning solutions for the food industry, baking industry, personal care industry, and more, the two systems perform cleanings differently.

CIP Systems

CIP systems clean the interiors of process equipment after a product batch is complete or when you need to transition between products on the processing line. The equipment stays in place during the cleaning process without needing disassembly, which can reduce downtime.

In traditional chemical based systems, a computer-controlled system sprays a soiled machine with detergent, circulating it through the system’s path. This spray agitates and dislodges material from surfaces and most small crevices that could otherwise develop buildup and support pathogen growth. 

After the main cleaning cycle is complete and product particles have been removed from the processing path, chemical cleaners flush out any remaining soil and sanitize the equipment’s surfaces. 

This type of automated cleaning can reduce the risk of harmful bacteria development and inhibit cross-contamination on surfaces by removing lingering traces of:

COP Systems

Traditional COP systems for cleaning pump rotors, clamps, and various other smaller equipment components that aren’t well-suited to CIP processing. Instead of trying to clean these parts in place, the COP process submerges removed parts in an immersion washer — essentially a long tank of hot water.

Normally Spray jets expel a detergent solution that generates turbulence for removing stuck-on ingredient material. These systems also soak the parts in a sanitizing solution to further neutralize any lingering contaminants thus leaving the part clean. Finally, operators will reinstall the cleaned parts into their manufacturing machinery and proceed with production.

CIP and COP System Advantages

These cleaning systems provide:

• Enhanced Safety: Both systems reduce manual cleaning cycles, generally keeping workers safely away from high-temperature equipment and sanitizing chemicals or detergents.
• Improved Productivity: Semi- and fully automated CIP and COP systems increase output and operational uptime by minimizing the time you spend cleaning.
• Reduced Human Error: Automation also decreases the likelihood of workers inadvertently jeopardizing product safety.
• Reliable Product Quality: Given their repeatability, automated cleaning processes deliver a consistent clean that lowers the risk of contaminants and maintains product integrity. As a result, your company can develop a strong reputation for quality and avoid product recalls.
• Sustainability Benefits: CIP and COP systems consume less water, chemicals, and power than manual efforts, saving on utility costs.

Choosing the Right Cleaning System

When trying to decide between the two, consider your application, budget, and expectations for process time. CIP systems are ideal for stationary equipment or machinery that would be difficult to disassemble, while COP systems can clean smaller parts and are typically less expensive. However, their disassembly, loading, unloading, and reassembly processes are manual and time-consuming, so a CIP system offers superior efficiency. CIP systems also have the advantage of repeatable cycle control for further reducing water, chemical, and energy usage.

How You Can Use Steam for Better CIP and COP Operations

Incorporating high-temperature dry steam into your CIP and COP processes rather than chemicals greatly enhances system cleaning performance. Direct steam-injection heat exchangers can deliver steam at CIP temperatures for cleaning tanks, conveyor belts, and more.

At these temperatures, the steam quickly dislodges everything from crumbs and grease to harmful contaminants from equipment or part surfaces. It effectively sanitizes, penetrating even hard-to-reach spaces or small crevices to kill microorganisms. In addition to its rapid efficiency, steam-cleaning food processing equipment is safer and more environmentally conscious because the process doesn’t rely on chemicals and produces less waste effluent. One of the main advantages to using steam is that the same steam cleaning systems can be used for both CIP and COP in your facility

Electric Steam Generators for Cleaning Systems

For companies interested in faster and more reliable cleaning cycles, greater eco-friendliness, and more consistent product quality, steam is the answer for your CIP or COP system. At Electro-Steam Generator Corp., we provide energy-efficient, high-temperature electric steam generators to meet these systems’ steam demands.

Since 1952, our company has been committed to quality. Our units achieve 98% efficiency without the need to first preheat feed water. All of our products are made in the USA using only the highest-quality components. They come standard with stainless steel cabinets and electrical panels/boxes. 

Licensed by the NJ Department of Labor, our team of boiler operators produces most generators within two to four weeks. Each electric steam generator has a five-year warranty on the chamber and a one-year warranty on all other components. Electro-Steam is CRN registered as well as UL and cUL listed. 

Achieve a thorough, more efficient cleaning with steam. Contact us for details on our steam sanitation solutions, or schedule a free demo today.

The Role of Electric Steam Generators in Winery Equipment Maintenance

Winemaking is a sensitive process that’s subject to many factors from grape varietals, to fermentation details, to the wood used in aging barrels. Sanitation is also an important contributor to wine flavor, quality, and safety. Following proper maintenance and cleaning practices helps ensure the finished product meets winemaker and consumer expectations.

While there are several ways to keep barrels, vessels, and other equipment clean, steam sanitization stands out as an efficient and safe method. Here, we’ll look at the ways in which wineries can use steam for cleaning and the advantages of investing in steam generation equipment for winery sanitation.

Maintaining Wine Equipment

As in many other industries where precision operations and product quality are paramount, winemaking involves specialized equipment that must be properly maintained. Part of the maintenance process is cleaning and sanitizing wood barrels, stainless steel vine vessels, bottling lines, and flexible tubing. This helps to protect complex wine flavors and prevent entire batches from spoilage or sub-par quality. As a result, equipment stays in top condition for longer, and the risk of losing income due to a failed product decreases.

Regular sanitization is a critical part of the winemaking process in order to remove residue, debris, tannins, and impurities that can affect wine taste and quality. It’s important to clean barrels after every full discharge, and to clean unused barrels every one to two years to deodorize and remove any lingering bacteria or contaminants. Stainless steel tanks, bottling equipment, flexible tubing, and other equipment also need regular deep cleaning.

Hot water washing is a traditional cleaning method. Unfortunately, it is not always effective because the water doesn’t get into all areas of barrels and tanks. What’s more, temperatures may be insufficient to kill harmful or undesirable yeast, molds, and microbes. Even high pressure hot water may miss residues or sediment that has built up.

Chemical agents such as chlorine bleach, potassium and sodium metabisulfite, and even ozone can be effective. However, strong acids, bases and toxic compounds are harsh on equipment, unpleasant or dangerous for employees, and require thorough and careful rinsing to remove any trace of residue. Chemicals not only impact flavors and product quality, but they can be unsafe to consume. Beyond this, chemical washing processes are water intensive and risk damage to the equipment if they remain in contact with it too long or are improperly diluted. Stainless steel in particular can pit or discolor with prolonged exposure to certain chemicals.

So what’s a better solution? Dry saturated steam.

The Role of Electric Steam Generators

Steam sanitization offers an effective, efficient alternative to hot water and chemicals that is also eco-friendly. Dry saturated steam reaches high temperatures quickly and gets to all cleanable surfaces in barrels, tubing, and tanks without causing pitting, corrosion, or other damage. It can even remove tartrate from barrel walls and penetrate the wood to kill harmful molds and bacteria.

Unlike standard wet steam, dry steam holds less than 5% moisture when it reaches saturation temperature. Liquid water in the steam is converted to vapor, so moisture-sensitive equipment stays dry and corrosion risk is minimal. An electric dry steam generator can reach temperatures above 200°F, which is far higher than most pathogens can survive.

Wineries that use steam clean winery equipment can experience several benefits, including:

• Portability: With an on-board water tank, steam generator units are available when and where they’re needed without removing or dismantling equipment.
• On-Board Water Tank: Unlike boiler-fed systems that may require protective additives or other agents that can be transmitted into the cleaning steam, our generators use a built-in tank to create a continuous supply of dry steam from plain water.
• Versatility: Clean wooden barrels, stainless steel tanks, flexible tubing, and mixed-material equipment with one simple cleaning tool.
• Environmentally Friendly: Dry steam cleaning uses less water than traditional methods because smaller quantities of water are converted to steam, and rinse water is reduced or eliminated.
• No chemicals: Steam is a powerful cleaner without the need to add bleach or other harmful chemicals. Steam is also residue-free so traces of cleaners don’t contaminate equipment or wine.
• Efficiency: Dry steam reaches high temperatures to quickly kill pathogens and break down tartrates and other accumulated wastes from the fermenting process. Surfaces also dry quickly after steam cleaning, so they are ready for use sooner.

At Electro-Steam, we carry a selection of dry steam generator equipment and accessories that make it simple to establish a process and routine for cleaning and maintaining winemaking equipment. Our winery steam generators are available with different power ratings and water tank capacities, and have these user-friendly features:

• High- and low-pressure selector so operators can easily alternate between low pressure (1.3 bar/19 psi) for use with wooden barrels or high pressure (3.5 bar/80 psi) for use with steel
• A 7.5 (109 psi) safety relief valve
• Low-level cut-off with an alarm

Learn even more about why to steam clean wine barrels in our blog.

Contact Electro-Steam for Winery Steam Generators

Having an electric steam generator on hand in your facility makes it easy to clean equipment in place, right when the need arises. Maintain safety and protect your wine brand with the power of dry saturated steam.

Electro-Steam specializes in high-performance steam generation solutions for commercial and industrial applications. Each of our units is made in the USA and meets or exceeds ASME and CE standards.

Contact us today to learn more about our electric steam generators.