Cleaning & Depots
January/February 2020
B ULK D ISTRIBUTOR
13
Left: Gröninger installed a tank container cleaning facility for
Cogent Logistics in Singapore
Top: Before and after - Gröninger has replaced entire control
systems at three customer sites
New Gröninger installation in Singapore
G
röninger’s Asian arm has had a busy time of late. In
Singapore, the company has just installed a new tank
container cleaning facility for COSCO-owned Cogent
Logistics.
Featuring one 200-bar and three 100-bar steam cleaning bays,
superfast four-minute tank drying and an air purification system for
odorous and noxious products, the new facility boasts the ability to
handle between 40 and 60 tank containers a day, including food
grade units.
The system has a modern waste water treatment system,
comprising a physical chemical and a biological part, which meets
the strict parameters set by the Singaporean authorities. All the
equipment is built into box containers, each one having a colour
representing the activities.
In other news, Gröninger points out that many tank cleaning systems have been built in the past decades that still run on the
original controls.
However, aging control systems carry a number of risks. To start
with, the control cabinets are situated in humid environments and
have to endure a lot. Panels and components might not, or hardly,
be available anymore. In addition, the passage of time might have
caused cables to become brittle.
And as with other bits of technology, PLCs of the specific model
might be difficult to obtain today. In case of a PLC failure this can
lead to long downtimes. Moreover, the PLC software is probably
outdated and will not be very flexible.
This is compounded by the trend today of digitalisation which
demands more transparency in the cleaning process. New operating
systems can offer this transparency and offer many possibilities for
linking data. But the question is: how do you replace a complete
Automatic
IBC cleaning IFCO expands in Portugal
C
TW says its engineering team has created ‘the best
solution’ for cleaning IBCs (plastic or metallic) and mixing
tanks.
Developed with a modular design, the CTW washing machine can
be configured to the customer’s specific needs and even upgraded if
production grows or changes over time.
The washing machine can be configured to clean multiple products
with solvent, water or both cleaning media through a high-pressure
jet or brushes.
Benefits include a three minute average cleaning time, 80 percent
less waste disposal, 75 percent workforce reduction, improved safety
and quality, modular design, a compact lay out, and cost efficiency.
Numerous options are
CTW’s IBC washing
machine can be
available, such as different
configured to customers’
heating systems, external
specific needs
cleaning, remote
assistance for just in
time service, and
multiple
washing/rinsing
circuits to reduce
cross
contamination.
www.ctwcleaning.com
Quala opens new site in Texas
R
eusable packaging provider IFCO Systems is opening a new
washing centre for reusable plastic containers (RPCs) in
Portugal.
The facilities contain improved technology to ensure an efficient label
removal and drying process. The new washing centre will triple IFCO’s
washing capacity in Portugal to approximately 30 million RPCs a year.
The centre is located in Azambuja, near the capital, Lisbon, and is
just 500m from IFCO’s warehouse. With 7,200 sqm of covered area
and 4,000 sqm uncovered, the facilities offer enough storage space to
improve the availability of RPCs for both Portugal and Spain.
It includes more than 50 employees, eight loading and unloading
truck docks and innovative technology. The facility has the capacity to
wash 90,000 RPCs a day. By increasing capacity, IFCO will have the
ability to wash RPCs from other markets, mostly from Spain. By
washing them directly in Portugal, IFCO avoids the transport to Spain
of approximately 4 million empty and dirty RPCs each year.
IFCO RPCs are used to transport fresh foods such as fruits and
www.quala.us.com
www.groninger.eu
vegetables, bread, meat, and fish, so IFCO ensures strict global
hygiene and sanitation standards in all its washing facilities. RPCs are
laundered to the highest standards and to the strict HACCP plan.
Each IFCO centre is equipped with state-of-the-art cleaning and
drying equipment. The Azambuja facilities contain an innovative
centrifugal drying machine, which meticulously dries out the RPCs to
improve washability and ensure that there are no wet RPCs during
winter.
IFCO has already installed water recycling equipment in several of
the washing centres, which reduces the amount of water used during
the washing process. Additionally, the company uses technology to
save energy by combining heat and generated energy. The company’s
SmartGuardian system measures and monitors key parameters such as
water flow and temperature, pump pressure, contact time as well as
detergent and disinfectant concentration. The system continuously
monitors washing processes and provides consumers with verifiable
and proven data.
cleaning
your
wörld
Tankcleaning manufacturer:
Silo / bulk cleaning
Chemicals cleaning
Food cleaning
Railway carriage cleaning
Container cleaning
Container heating
IBC cleaning
CIP / latex cleaning
I
n North America, Quala has opened a new location in
Angleton, Texas, which was formerly operated by Premier
Container Services.
Jeff Noble, senior vice president – operations, stated: “We are
looking forward to adding the new Angleton location into the
Quala network. This new site allows us to offer another convenient
location to our customers in the Gulf Region, complementing
Quala’s nearby locations in Clute and Freeport. In addition to the
chemical cleaning services, we’ll be offering cleaning of FRAC tanks
and roll-offs. Plus, equipment maintenance services are available,
making this a convenient stop for customers.”
The new Quala facility is located at 28138 FM 2004, Angleton, TX
77515, minutes from Highway 274 and East Mulberry Street.
control system without downtime?
Over the past year, Gröninger has replaced entire control systems
at three customer sites, both in the Netherlands and abroad.
Control cabinets, PLCs, cabling, software, everything was replaced.
These ‘open heart surgeries’ require thorough preparation and
project planning, as over-run means downtime, and downtime
means damage to reputation.
Each project had its own challenges, Gröninger says. One was out
of action for two weeks because the floors needed replacing and
the other had to maintain part of the control cabinet. The
conversions were all done successfully and within the agreed
timeframe, leaving customers with future-proof systems again and
so serving their customers even better.
Tank Cleaning
Systems
Food / Non-Food
Cleaning Systems
Parts & Service
The reference in new tankcleaning projects and renovations!
CTW
Everdongenlaan 9/19
2300 Turnhout
Belgium
T. +32 (0) 14 27 00 80
[email protected]
www.ctwcleaning.com
www.groninger.eu
Overschieseweg 111
3044 EH Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Telephone +31 10 437 10 22