SSL Industries Endorsement by Karl Linck, an engineer and technical consultant with 45+ years in the dairy and processed foods industry with development of sanitary processing and packaging equipment and systems:

“The sanitary requirements for food equipment continue to evolve to deliver more robust, more sanitary, and easier to clean equipment. For many years, the seemingly simple small tables have not been a key focus area by either equipment manufacturers or by food producers. However, with the advert of bacterial testing advances and persistent, hide and go seek pathogens like Listeria, many areas have been brought under a higher scrutiny.

Tables have routinely been made from stainless angle or lightweight stainless tubing. Stainless angle typically creates a less than smooth surface that without high polish can easily become the perfect attachment surface for a biofilm. The positioning of the angle often results in a hidden area that requires special consideration when cleaning and can often result in a less than ideal complete clean. Plus, stainless standard angle tables tend to get fairly heavy. Lightweight tubing tables can be made with readily available polished tubing and the tubing can be positioned to give acceptable and relatively easy cleaning. At first look, and for many years, many food manufacturers were happy with this style of table.

But Listeria and other bacteria have taken advantage of a fundamental flaw in the tube construction. This flaw is literally the hidden open area within the tubing. When lightweight stainless tubing is constantly moved around a facility for either line reconfiguration for different products or for moving out of a wet room during cleaning, the lightweight frames are often subject to bending forces and fatigue at the welded joints. Add to this that most wet cleaned rooms are built with necessary pitched floors and simply loading and unloading product or equipment from the tables causes a similar bending stress and fatigue at those same welded joints. The net inevitable effect is that it is only a matter of time for the development of small nearly invisible cracks around the weld joints.

When a crack does develop it is like putting out a neon sign for the opening of a Listeria spa and resort with other bacteria welcome. With the typically cool production temperatures followed by steam room type humidity and elevated temperatures during cleaning, there becomes a regular exchange of nice moist conditions into the tube interior. Although heat treating equipment can be effective, all the chemical cleaning attempted will not prevent the Listeria or other bacterial gusts from venturing out of their cozy little home on a regular basis. 

This is where the construction techniques and patented design of the SSL Industries tables becomes a great benefit. Large radius bent structural member with no hidden cleaning spots, surface finishes that enhance cleaning both in time and effectiveness, and no hollow tubes. The SSL Industries table design fits well with the desire of many companies to not use lightweight tubing wherever possible to prevent these surprise areas of contamination. The tables are constructed in a very sanitary manner with good detail in welds and radiuses. The use of custom bent structural members gives a strong table with an acceptable weight while being robust. Plus, with no hidden uncleanable interior areas, Listeria and other bacteria do not have a hiding place. The SSL Industries table design and construction makes table cleaning and maintenance and easy, effective, and economical task.”

– Karl Linck