The Use of Stainless Steel for Tank Fabrication in Food Processing Plants

Blog | January 12th, 2018

At the far end of a food processing plant, bulky stainless steel tanks are containing exotic fluids. They’ve been fabricated to store acidic milk or some corrosive animal byproduct. Dairy products, beverages, and even vinegar, these robust storage units contain tens of thousands of litres. The utilized alloy must be pristine, must be corrosion proof, not just resistant, and it must withstand the acidic attacks imposed by the above commodities.

Alloys That Defy Acid Attacks 

The strange thing about food is that it isn’t quite as friendly as we’ve been taught. Citric acids are constituent elements within many fruits. As for that nurturing bovine milk, it’s loaded with lactic acid. And let’s not forget acetic acid, a key ingredient of vinegar. All of this corrosive stuff is heavily diluted, of course, but does that weakened state matter when we’re talking about storage equipment? After all, given enough time, vinegar can dissolve rocks. Food-safe stainless steel is graded to absolutely oppose such chemically caustic attacks. Furthermore, this alloy isn’t just corrosion resistant, it’s practically corrosion proof. That’s a property food processing plants hold in high regard, especially in this unexpectedly acidic fluid setting.

Best Used in Extremely Aggressive Conditions 

What other event takes place inside a stainless steel food containment vessel? We’ve already talked about fluid corrosion, a property that’s found in milk, fruit, and animal soft tissue. What about fermentation? Alcoholic beverages ferment, but then so do many sauces. The taste of that alcoholic beverage improves as it ferments. Likewise, the flavours associated with a specially formulated sauce can’t develop until the fermentation process is in full flow. Keep that state changing event in mind when the vessel is being fabricated. Brewed drinks, cultivated sauces, even carbonated drinks, they all require a complex series of chemical reactions. Therefore, not only must the stainless steel tank contain the initial fluid state, it must also withstand those reactions.

Rolled into cylinders, welded and riveted, the typically cylindrical vessel isn’t quite done yet. As well as the pressure exerted by a fermented or carbonated beverage/sauce, the alloy has to be ductile. As food or beverage activity takes place, the metal walls of the storage unit bow and contract. Then there’s heat and cold to deal with in the food processing plant. Indeed, these stainless steel tanks are massive units, plus they’re thoroughly sealed, yet that sealing process is about to be tortured, both chemically and thermally. At the end of the day, the graded alloy has to be capable of defeating chemical oxidation, thermal distress, and numerous food-induced chemical attacks, all while maintaining that pristine surface.

Stecor Engineering & Fabrication

1/13 Crawford St, Braeside VIC 3195

Mobile:  0419 562 284
Phone: (03) 9028 4130
Fax:   (03) 8669 4400

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