A world first: Hygienic Design cavity-free clamping lever

Klemmhebel Hygienic Design (Foto: NovoNox.com)

Herkömmlicher Klemmhebel im Vergleich zum Klemmhebel nach Hygienic Design (Foto: NovoNox.com)

Clamping levers are indispensable in production and manufacturing. However, because of the cavities present, a use in hygienic fields was not possible until now. The company NovoNox from Markgrönningen near Stuttgart, Germany, has addressed this problem and presents their new development, a cavity-free clamping lever, as a world debut to the market.

In branches such as medicine, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, beverage and foodstuff manufacturing, clean production environments count as one of the highest priorities. The focus here is on plants for hygienic applications that have special functions such as clamping equipment and machine parts. In terms of functionality and efficiency, the use of clamping levers here was always sensible. The problem was however, until now such operating parts could not be used as they presented a high risk for product contamination.

Conventional clamping levers were designed with an open construction. The respective grips have components that have male or female threads. Screws that fit into the lever through a tapped hole with a countersink on top and notches between the screw insert and the lever housing offer too many cavities. Product residues and micro-organisms can accumulate unnoticed. This can lead to contamination with dangerous bacteria and foreign matter. The same applies to abrasion particles from the clamp that could get into the product. To the significant consequences count amongst others, production rejects that can prove to be cost-intensive.

A world first for sensitive production areas

NovoNox KG, a solution provider for complex tasks in the field of fastening materials, has addressed this problem and offers a hygienic solution: cavity-free clamping levers according to Hygienic Design that are fully closed and hermetically sealed. To achieve this, research and development had to be carried out on a clamping lever made from 1.4404 stainless steel. This clamping lever had to comply with the stringent requirements of the foodstuff, pharmaceutical and medical technology industries, and it had to meet the hygienic demands of the consortium of machine and equipment manufacturers (EHEDG).

The focus of the long term development period were a number of challenges: The space between the grip part and the screw insert had to be completely sealed with a special shaft seal. The grip part had to be externally hermetically sealed and made in one piece. The clamping lever - manufactured to Hygienic Design - had to be able to be easily, safely and hygienically cleaned using the "Cleaning in Place (CIP)", "Washing in Place (WIP)", and "Sterilisation in Place (SIP)" methods, without dismantling.

"It was also important for us to be able to easily retool without dismantling and so prevent time wasting production losses and complicated installation work. The new clamping levers can be quickly and comfortably integrated and are immediately ready for use." says Jürgen Leuze, NovoNox Division Manager.

New generation of clamping levers

Innovation pure, also by the surfaces that come into contact with cleaning agents: These are polished to a high gloss so that deposits cannot accumulate on the surface. Wear particles, dirt or cleaning solutions have no chance to adhere. The sealing material 70 EPDM 291 from Freudenberg which is specifically approved for foodstuffs was chosen for use on the new clamping lever during development. To intelligently solve the problems of adhesion and heavy wear, a shaft sealing method with the patented "Reduced Friction by Nonotechnology (RFN™) comes into play. The properties of the sealing material reduce friction and so allow for a lighter travel of the shaft and guarantee an especially wear resistant and durable sealing of the surface.

All-round protection offers optimum safety

"With the development of the Hygienic USIT® clamping lever, all advantages have been combined: rapid processing of the screw point without tools, seamless sealing, extremely high surface finish quality, cost-efficiency and compliance with all current hygienic requirements." assesses expert Jürgen Leuze. And the newly developed clamping lever really does have no cavities that could lead to contamination. No germs or dirt, product residues or cleaning agents can get into the clamping lever or seep out from the interior. This offers all-round protection and optimum safety leading to new application possibilities in production methods and revolutionises hygienically sensitive manufacturing processes under meticulously clean criteria.