Processing equipment used in the food, beverage and packaging industries often require that certain components meet FDA guidelines and pass a number of tests before put in production. These packaging industries include fruit and juice, dairy, food additive, brewery, meat, alcohol, dry ingredients, wine, bakery goods, and numerous others. Pharmaceutical companies also need their facilities and processing equipment to meet strict standards. Cosmetic manufacturing, creams & lotions manufacturing, powder drying and granulating, powder mixing and blending, and tablet and capsule filling all involve custom built processing equipment with one-of-a-kind components.
Food mashers, sugar and chocolate molds, dough rollers, pill chutes, filling nozzles, and sorting channels are a few examples of components that can be made from Hapco materials. The ease of processing and high strength of polyurethanes makes them the material of choice for these types of applications. Unlike thermoplastics, thermosets are available in small quantities, i.e., quart and gallon units, and can be processed without the use of expensive equipment or tooling. In food and drug applications, where certain components are only manufactured in limited quantities, Liquid Molding is always preferred over Injection Molding.
In the past, manufacturing companies have had reservations using thermosets for food and drug applications. Many thermoset polyurethanes contain mercury and other toxic chemicals that would not pass most biocompatibility requirements. Hapco has solved this issue with the introduction of the Steralloy™ Series.
Steralloy™ products range in hardness from 25A to 84D, making them useful for a wide variety of Food & Drug applications. They have often used in applications that require passing cytoxicity, biocompatibility, or USP Class VI testing, for example.
