After 10 years of owning Rytec’s Clean-Roll® doors, when Nestle Professional expanded operations at their L.J. Minor manufacturing plant in Cleveland, they once again specified Rytec doors. The two-story, 75,000-square-foot expansion adds more advanced technologies and processes as well as additional Clean-Roll doors. “We want this operation to be as clean as it can be,” says Tom Arthur, MINOR’S plant engineer in charge of the expansion project, “and the Rytec Clean-Roll door is part of a successful program to control our environment and our quality.”

As product makes its way through the plant on specially designed automated guided vehicles, it passes through a number of rooms and any one of 27 doorways. All these areas must meet controlled environment standards. Positive air pressure prevents air infiltration; Clean-Roll doors are set up in an airlock
arrangement to maintain this environment. Many of the functions once performed electrically and mechanically on the clean room doors are now handled by electronics in the Rytec System 4® controller. The AGV control system communicates with the System 4 to ensure the doors are opened in time and closed promptly after the AGV exits the door.

“The whole packaging area requires positive air pressure,” says Arthur, “and what we’ve done is balance the room using this sophisticated door system.”

Wastewater, rinse water and spilled product are major sources of contamination in food processing facilities. The door curtain acts like a large catcher’s mitt for aerosolized microorganisms, blocking the entry of these invaders at the doorway.

A number of these Clean-Roll doors use an optional pneumatic drip-catch tray that moves under the roll drum when the door opens to prevent adulteration and contamination. The doors also have a sloped bottom bar at the bottom of the fabric panel, preventing contaminants from dripping onto product by channeling water off to the side of the doorway.

All the doors at Nestle are engineered for washdown with high-pressure cleaning with water and/or chemicals to sanitize potential sites for bacteria manifestation. Features like stainless-steel piano hinges where the fabric and roll are connected, make for cleaning easy.