JW Winco: Cleaning-optimized leveling feet
By News Release | March 22, 2024
When strict hygiene standards are in place, it’s essential to use the appropriate optimized parts. However, even in less sensitive areas, optimized parts are just as valuable, starting with the leveling feet.
Hygienic Design standard parts are essential in the production process of sensitive areas like food, medical, and pharmaceutical industries. These parts facilitate the manufacturing of preservative-free products while ensuring a longer shelf life, product safety, and consumer protection. Hygienic design standards simplify the cleaning process by providing high surface quality/finish, freedom from dead spaces to ensure proper fluid/cleaning agent run-off, non-concaved/dished outer surfaces, and sealed bolting areas. This design also reduces the time and materials required for regular cleaning, thereby lowering operating costs. As a result, companies in less sensitive areas also find these parts vital to their processes.
We start with stainless steel leveling feet GN 20 with a turned foot plate, firmly vulcanized bottom surface, and spindle seals. Designed with mounting holes, these leveling feet satisfy the requirements of EHEDG, the 3-A Sanitary Standard, and the DGUV testing principles, especially when pairing with the hex head screw or nut GN 1580.
The alternative model GN 19 is designed for lower loads, covers the same range of applications (except for floor mounting), and complies with the 3-A Sanitary Standard and the DGUV testing principles. The foot plate is stamped and/or formed from a stainless steel AISI 316L sheet rather than machined, and it is lined on the bottom with a blue silicone elastomer. As a result, this part also forms a tight seal against the floor. The formed sheet metal foot offers a cost advantage over the GN 20 leveling foot. The two leveling feet, GN 17 and GN 18 are new to the lineup. While they don’t meet strict Hygienic Design requirements, they still utilize FDA compliant materials and satisfy the requirements of EU 1935-2004. These two parts are used in applications where wet cleaning is not required, such as the packaging of dry goods.
The materials used have been selected accordingly: the GN 17 features stainless steel AISI 304 for the plate, the spindle adjustable by six degrees, and the height-adjusting hex nut. Instead of the blue silicone elastomer, the floor seal consists of plasticizer-free, vulcanized black NBR rubber.
The GN 18 also features stainless steel in AISI 316L, while both leveling feet offer optimized inclined angles, easy-to-clean surfaces, and an absence of concave geometry. With these two leveling feet, JW Winco has extended its range of standard parts for applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries and beyond.