What is FIC?
The Food Innovation Center (FIC) at Rutgers University is a unique food business incubator and accelerator that supports both established early-stage entrepreneurs and existing food companies from concept to commercialization. The Center, which combines years of industry expertise with the advanced technologies offered by Rutgers, provides companies with FDA and USDA certified facilities and access to state-of-the-art industrial equipment to help successfully grow their businesses.
In its efforts to continuously provide companies with access the latest advancements within the food processing industry, the Food Innovation Center has recently begun using Omega Engineering’s HANI High Accuracy, Non-Invasive Clamp Temperature Sensor in their food processing systems.
What is the HANI?
The HANI High Accuracy, Non-Invasive Clamp Temperature Sensor is a game-changing product for temperature measurement and control in industrial piping process systems. The HANI Clamp Sensor delivers the high accuracy of invasive, in-line temperature sensors without the costly and time-consuming installation process. Installation is more like a surface sensor; the HANI can be attached to a pipe in seconds – literally. Simply clamp the HANI sensor to the desired location on a processing pipe and it immediately starts accurately measuring the temperature of in-pipe media. And detaching the sensor and relocating it within the same system is just as easy. Besides eliminating installation downtime – because there is none – the HANI Clamp Temperature Sensor also eliminates all risk of contamination, as well as the processing and routine maintenance challenges that industrial systems operators are very familiar with. With lower total ownership cost, high accuracy (±0.50 to ±1.0°C), quick and easy installation, and zero processing or maintenance issues, the new HANI High Accuracy, Non-Invasive Temperature Sensor is ideal for processing industries such as:
- Food and Beverage
- Pharmaceutical
- Life Sciences
- Chemical
- Personal Care
- Petrochemical
- Industrial Coatings
- Automation and Control
HANI Application at the FIC Facility
The food processing system at FIC has in-line thermocouples that are installed at the end of their run – located right before the product enters back into the kettle. To get a more accurate temperature measurement, the systems operating team at FIC made plans to move two thermocouple sensors closer to the beginning of the system. Operations had to be completely shut down and a contractor was brought in to make sanitary welds in the pipes. Overall, relocating the two sensors took two days of operation downtime and thousands of dollars in contracting fees – to move the sensors a total of eight feet down the line!
After trying out Omega’s HANI High Accuracy, Non-Invasive Clamp Temperature Sensor, the systems operating team at FIC could see that the HANI sensor could have saved them days of downtime and thousands in costs. The HANI Sensor, unlike invasive thermocouples or RTDs, does not need an in-pipe probe of any kind – it simply straps to the outside of a pipe and starts measuring the temperature of the media flowing within. And, according to Steve Baughman, the Senior Maintenance Mechanic at FIC, when they did a side-by-side comparison of their invasive sensors with the HANI, and the HANI was just as fast and accurate (if not more so) as the invasive thermocouples they have in-line. With HANI sensors, the team at FIC would have the option to place highly accurate temperature sensors at any desired location within their system. And, if needed, relocation of these sensors could be done in seconds rather than days, with none of the installation costs.
Not only can the HANI sensor prevent future costly downtime resulting from installation and/or relocation, but it has also proved to be a much safer option to in-line thermocouples. For FIC, and any system processing any sort of food media, cross-contamination is a big deal. Simply put, cross-contamination is not good in food production. When using in-line thermocouples, extra time and effort must be taken to clean and inspect the probe in order to prevent breakage. And, if the food media being processed is semi-solid, the risk increases. But with Omega’s HANI Clamp Temperature Sensor, which is completely non-invasive, there simply is no risk. With zero contact with the product, there is zero chance of cross-contamination.
After testing Omega’s HANI High Accuracy, Non-Invasive Clamp Temperature Sensor in their food processing system, the team at FIC was extremely impressed. The HANI sensors have proved to be as accurate as the in-line sensors installed in FIC’s system, they can be installed or relocated within the system with zero downtime and cost, and they eliminate all risk of cross-contamination.
To learn more about the HANI High Accuracy, Non-Invasive Clamp Temperature Sensor.
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