JPH08197027A - Method of detecting washing abnormality occurrence and vessel provided with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To detect the presence or absence of washing defects without disassembling equipment by measuring a physical change of the inner wall surface caused by a washing liquid being in contact with the wall of a washing vessel. CONSTITUTION: On jetting a washing liquid, pressure change caused by the washing liquid reaching the inner wall surface is detected by a pressure detecting element 10 installed inside a tank 12. The fluctuation of the detected pressure is transmitted to a control part 11. The control part 11 compares this fluctuation value with that when previously set normal washing is performed to determine the fact of washing abnormality occurrence. When the fluctuation of the detected pressure is smaller than the set value, the lowering of feeding pressure of washing liquid is indicated and at the worst, the fact that the washing liquid does not reach the wall are shown to judge the washing abnormality. When a judgement that abnormality occurs is made, the washing operation is stopped, and the nozzle 13 is checked for soil, clogging or the like and its cause is removed. Light is radiated from a sight glass or the like formed on the vessel, and a change in light quantity of light returned by reflection and scattering is measured by using a light receiving element such as a photoelectric tube to judge the washing abnormality occurrence.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning method and a cleaning device for these manufacturing equipments in the equipments for manufacturing pharmaceuticals and cosmetics and foods.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method for detecting a cleaning abnormality of these manufacturing facilities and an apparatus for realizing the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In manufacturing pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and foods, it is required to guarantee the quality and safety of the products. For this reason, in the production of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, in order to maintain product purity, it is required to strictly wash the details of the production equipment so that impurities are not mixed. Similarly, in the production of foods, in order to prevent deterioration and spoilage of raw material quality and maintain good hygiene, it is required to reliably wash the production equipment.

The cleaning of such manufacturing facilities for pharmaceutical products is
With the recent increase in the size of manufacturing equipment and the automation of operation control, the method of disassembling and dismantling the manufacturing equipment and cleaning it manually is a method of injecting a cleaning liquid into the equipment without dismantling the equipment. Has come to be used. This method is called a stationary cleaning method, and specifically,
Cleaning products that are hot water, acidic solutions, alkaline solutions, detergent solutions for cleaning, and mixed solutions of them on the surface of the tanks, pipes, etc. that compose the object of cleaning such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, or food manufacturing equipment Is a method of removing contaminants by injecting and contacting.

For the cleaning method in place, see Firmtech Japan 1992 Vol. 8, No. 8, pp. 31-38 (Pharm.
ch.Japan, 8 (8) p.31-38, 1992).

[0005]

In the stationary cleaning method, the inside of the tank is cleaned by (1) a method of pouring a cleaning liquid into the tank to clean, and (2) a rotating nozzle or a spray ball installed inside the tank. There are two methods of cleaning by ejecting a cleaning liquid. Since the method (1) uses a large amount of cleaning liquid, the cost is high.
Therefore, especially in the case of a large tank, the method (2) is used. In the cleaning method of (2), it is essential that the cleaning liquid uniformly reaches the entire inside of the tank from the rotary nozzle or the spray ball installed inside the tank.
This is an item to be considered together with the cleaning conditions at the stage of designing the device. However, in the cleaning of the actual plant, the cleaning liquid does not reach the part where the cleaning liquid does not reach due to poor rotation of the rotating nozzle, clogging of the jet nozzle, decrease in the supply pressure of the cleaning liquid, etc. There were cases where defects occurred. The occurrence of such cleaning failure has a great adverse effect on the quality of the product, but with such a conventional technique, it has not been possible to easily detect an abnormality in the cleaning operation that causes cleaning failure.

We have earnestly studied a method for detecting such a cleaning abnormality. As a result, they have found that the above problems can be solved by measuring the change in the physical properties of the inner wall surface caused by the contact of the cleaning liquid with the inner wall surface of the container to be cleaned.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning method for cleaning the inside of a manufacturing facility for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and foods, which can easily detect the presence or absence of cleaning abnormality that causes cleaning failure without disassembling the apparatus. It is to provide the manufacturing equipment to have.

[0008]

In the cleaning method according to the present invention, when the inside of a manufacturing facility for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, foods, etc. is cleaned by the stationary cleaning method, the physical property of the inner surface of the object to be cleaned is the cleaning liquid. It is characterized in that the presence or absence of the cleaning abnormality is detected by detecting the change due to the contact of the cleaning liquid and knowing the distribution state of the cleaning liquid.

In the stationary cleaning method for manufacturing facilities for pharmaceuticals and the like, the cleaning liquid is usually pumped by a pump and sprayed on the inner wall surface of the container by spraying the cleaning liquid from various nozzles installed inside the container to be cleaned. Remove the dirt adhering to the wall surface. In this case, dirt is a physical impact when the cleaning liquid is ejected from the nozzle and directly sprays and collides with the wall surface, and the secondary impact due to the rebound of the cleaning liquid also causes the cleaning liquid to form a liquid film. It is removed by the interaction of the three effects of elution of dirt as it flows down the wall. Therefore, in the stationary cleaning, the cleaning liquid needs to be evenly dispersed in the cleaning object container. The spraying state of the cleaning liquid in the container and the reach of the cleaning liquid are determined by the shape of the nozzle, the installation location, the number to be installed and the supply pressure of the cleaning liquid. Therefore, these manufacturing facilities are naturally designed so that the cleaning liquid can reach the inside thereof uniformly, and the cleaning conditions are also set. However, the arrival state of the cleaning liquid is only inspected when the device is assembled. Therefore, after the actual operation of the device, if the predetermined cleaning power is not exerted for some reason and cleaning failure occurs, the occurrence of cleaning failure is not known until a serious situation such as mixing of impurities into the product occurs.
In addition, there is a problem that it is not possible to specify what caused the cleaning failure.

Therefore, in the cleaning method of the present invention, the occurrence of abnormal cleaning is detected by the means described below when the stationary cleaning is performed.

In the cleaning method of the present invention, an element for detecting pressure is installed on the wall surface of the container to be cleaned. The element detects a pressure fluctuation generated when the cleaning liquid is ejected and collides with the wall surface. This makes it possible to know whether or not the cleaning liquid has collided with the wall surface, and how much impact force is being used to eject the cleaning liquid. Can be determined. For example, if pressure fluctuations are not detected by the pressure sensing element installed at the position where the cleaning liquid should collide, it can be determined that the cleaning liquid has not reached there. It is thought that it is stuck in. When the detected value of the pressure fluctuation is lower than the set value, it is determined that the secondary splash of the cleaning liquid does not sufficiently occur, the cleaning liquid does not reach the portion, and the cleaning abnormality occurs. In this case, similarly, the nozzle is dirty and the cleaning liquid is not coming out well, or the cleaning liquid supply system piping is dirty, making it difficult for the cleaning liquid to flow, causing the cleaning liquid supply pressure to drop. Considered as. As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to immediately know whether or not a cleaning abnormality has occurred during actual cleaning.

In the case of spraying the cleaning liquid from the rotary nozzle, the pressure change is regularly detected in accordance with the rotation of the nozzle. Therefore, by analyzing the pressure change pattern, the nozzle rotation failure can be detected. Can be detected.

In the apparatus provided with the cleaning method of the present invention, it is desirable that a plurality of pressure fluctuation detecting elements are installed in the container to be cleaned, and in particular, it is considered that the cleaning liquid such as the sensor port and the handhole does not easily reach. It is more desirable to install it in a place.

In the case of rotary nozzles, it is desirable to install one or more in the area shared by each nozzle.

The second cleaning method of the present invention detects a change in the amount of reflection / absorption of light on the inner wall of the container to be cleaned and / or a change in the optical path of the light due to the contact with the cleaning liquid, and causes an abnormal cleaning. To judge. When the cleaning liquid is in contact with the inner wall of the container to be cleaned and when it is not in contact, when the inner wall is irradiated with light, the change in the amount of reflection / absorption of light at a point on the inner wall, the reflection angle of the light, A change in the optical path occurs due to a change in the refractive index. Therefore, in the present invention, light is radiated from an optically transparent portion such as a sight glass installed in the container to be cleaned, and a change in the amount of light returned (reflection / absorption) is returned by reflection or scattering. , Using a light receiving element such as a photoelectric tube.
Alternatively, a method of irradiating the sight glass with light obliquely from the outside of the tank and measuring the amount of reflected light from a light receiving element installed on the reflection optical axis from the glass surface inside the tank may be used. in this way,
Depending on the presence or absence of the cleaning liquid on the glass surface inside the tank, the refraction angle on the glass surface changes and the optical path changes, so the amount of light detected by the light receiving element outside the tank changes.

The results of these measurements are compared with the results under the initial cleaning conditions to determine the presence or absence of abnormal cleaning. More preferably, in order to irradiate light or measure the change in the light quantity or the change in the optical path of the light, it is preferable that there are a plurality of transparent portions installed in the container to be cleaned.

In the third cleaning method of the present invention, it is more preferable to use the above-described means for judging the occurrence of cleaning abnormality in combination.

[0018]

The cleaning abnormality detecting means of the present invention measures the pressure change and optical characteristic change of the inner wall of the container to be cleaned, which is caused by the contact of the cleaning liquid, and determines whether the cleaning abnormality occurs. Particularly, in the present invention, when the cleaning abnormality occurs, that is, when the normal contact of the cleaning liquid does not occur, the pressure change and the optical characteristic change are not detected. As described above, in the present invention, since the positive change amount is always detected, it is determined that the cleaning abnormality has occurred even when these measuring elements do not operate, and thus, more safely and reliably,
It is possible to judge the quality of the cleaning state.

According to the present invention, when it is determined that the cleaning abnormality has occurred, the cause thereof is estimated. For example, when the pressure fluctuation that should occur due to the contact of the cleaning liquid is not detected from the pressure detection element installed at a certain position of the cleaning target container,
Possible causes are nozzle clogging and nozzle rotation failure. Further, for example, when the pressure fluctuation is detected but is smaller than the reference value, it is conceivable that the cleaning liquid supply pressure is reduced due to dirt on the nozzle or dirt on the pipe. Therefore, by investigating the causes of these predicted occurrences of cleaning failure and cleaning or replacing the nozzle, normal cleaning is performed. As described above, according to the present invention, since it is possible to reliably carry out normal cleaning, it is possible to prevent contamination or quality deterioration of the product caused by poor cleaning, and to ensure the safety and quality of the product. Can be highly guaranteed.

[0020]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an example of a manufacturing facility having means for detecting the presence or absence of a cleaning abnormality according to the present invention. This apparatus comprises a tank 12 for producing a product, a cleaning liquid storage tank 14, an acid solution storage tank 15, an alkaline solution storage tank 16, a heat exchanger 17, and pipes, valves, and pumps connecting these. Further, in the product production tank 12, a nozzle 13 for injecting a cleaning liquid and a plurality of pressure detection elements 10 are installed. The cleaning according to this embodiment is performed as follows. First, a predetermined amount of city water (tap water) is stored in the cleaning liquid storage tank 14. When a predetermined amount of water is stored, the pump 18 is operated and the water is transferred to the tank 12 through the pipe. At the same time, the pump 19 or 20 is operated to inject and mix a predetermined amount of acid solution or alkali solution into the same pipe to prepare a cleaning solution. The prepared cleaning liquid passes through the heat exchanger 17, is heated to a predetermined temperature, and is discharged from the nozzle 13 to the tank 12.
It is injected inside. As a result, the dirt attached to the inner wall surface of the tank 12 is removed by peeling or elution. The cleaning liquid in the tank 12 is quickly discharged to the outside of the tank 12 by the pump 18, and the cleaning liquid returns to the cleaning liquid storage tank 14. The cleaning solution is circulated for a predetermined time by the method described above,
Elute the dirt on the inner wall of the tank. Then, purified water is sprayed from the nozzle 13 into the tank 12 through a route different from the cleaning liquid to completely remove the cleaning liquid containing dirt.

In this embodiment, when the cleaning liquid is injected, the tank 1
2 The pressure detection element 10 installed inside detects a pressure change caused by the cleaning liquid reaching the inner wall surface. The pressure fluctuation detected by the pressure detection element 10 is sent to the control unit 11 and is compared with a value set in the control unit 11 when normal cleaning is performed in advance to determine whether or not a cleaning abnormality has occurred. . FIG. 2 shows an example of pressure fluctuations detected by the pressure detection element 10. The horizontal axis of FIG. 2 represents time, and the vertical axis represents the amount of pressure fluctuation. This is a measurement of the pressure fluctuation caused by the direct collision of the cleaning liquid ejected from the nozzle 13. In this case, a indicates a value included in the pressure fluctuation value region set in the control unit 11, and thus indicates that the cleaning liquid has normally reached. Since b shows a value smaller than the set area, it is conceivable that the nozzle is dirty or the cleaning liquid supply pressure is reduced. In c, no change in pressure is detected, so that the cleaning liquid has not arrived at all. In the case of a, in the part of the pressure sensing element,
It is determined that no cleaning abnormality has occurred. In the cases of b and c, it is determined that the cleaning abnormality has occurred. In the control unit 11, the pressure detection element 10 detects. The presence / absence of the cleaning abnormality is determined by integrating a plurality of such detection results. When it is determined that the cleaning abnormality has occurred, the controller 11 immediately stops the cleaning operation. If an abnormality occurs, check whether the nozzle is dirty or clogged to find out the cause of the cleaning abnormality, remove it, and perform normal cleaning.

[0023]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, it is possible to easily detect the presence or absence of abnormal cleaning of the inside of a manufacturing facility for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and foods without disassembling the device, and It is possible to prevent contamination and deterioration of quality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an embodiment of manufacturing and installation according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of data for determining whether or not a cleaning abnormality has occurred according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Pressure detection element, 11 ... Control part, 12 ... Tank for producing a product, 13 ... Cleaning liquid injection nozzle, 14 ... Cleaning liquid storage tank, 15 ... Acid solution storage tank, 16 ... Alkaline solution storage tank, 1
7 ... Heat exchanger, 18-21 ... Pump.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method for cleaning the inside of a container composed of a pipe, a valve, and a tank, wherein a physical condition of the surface of the pipe and the inner wall surface of the tank is generated by the contact of the cleaning liquid with the inner wall surface of the pipe and the tank. A cleaning method for occurrence of cleaning abnormality, which comprises determining a dispersion state of the cleaning liquid in the container by detecting a change in property, and determining whether or not the cleaning abnormality has occurred. 2. The cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein the change in the physical properties of the surface of the pipe and the inner wall surface of the tank is a pressure change caused by the contact of the cleaning liquid. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the change in the physical properties of the surface of the pipe and the surface of the inner wall of the tank is at least the change in the reflection amount of light, the change in the absorption amount, and the change in the optical path caused by the contact of the cleaning liquid. One of the cleaning methods for abnormal cleaning. 4. A container comprising a pipe, a valve and a tank, wherein at least one pressure detecting element is installed on a wall surface inside the pipe and the tank, and by the pressure detecting element,
A container characterized by detecting a pressure change due to contact of a cleaning liquid to determine a spraying state of the cleaning liquid, and determining whether or not a cleaning abnormality has occurred. 5. A container comprising a pipe, a valve, and a tank, wherein at least one light-transmitting region on the wall surface of the pipe and the tank, means for irradiating the inside of the container, and light inside the container. And irradiating light from the region, and detecting at least one of a change in the amount of reflection of the light, a change in the amount of absorption, and a change in the optical path due to contact of the cleaning liquid, to disperse the cleaning liquid. A container having means for determining a state and determining whether or not a cleaning abnormality has occurred. 6. A container comprising a pipe, a valve and a tank, a means for detecting a pressure change due to contact of a cleaning liquid on the pipe and the inner wall surface of the tank, and a change in light reflection amount, a change in absorption amount, an optical path. And a means for detecting at least two changes in the cleaning liquid, the dispersion state of the cleaning liquid is determined by the at least two means, and the presence or absence of a cleaning abnormality is determined. 7. A container comprising the pipe, the valve, and the tank according to claim 5, 6 or 7,
A container that is a container for equipment that manufactures either cosmetics or food. 8. The container according to claim 5, 6 or 7, wherein the container composed of the pipe, the valve, and the tank is a container that constitutes an incubator for living cells.