Cleanability of milk deposits on inner stainless steel tubing surfaces prepared by magnetic abrasive finishing

Abstract

Milk deposits are a serious technical and economic problem for the dairy industry. The proteins and minerals in milk form deposits on the surfaces of stainless steel equipment. The Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) process was used to produce highly finished inner surfaces of stainless steel tubes to compare to tubes with conventional inner surfaces. Deposition and cleaning tests were carried out using an experimental loop including the stainless steel tubes with different surface roughness profiles. Data showed that the smoothly finished inner surface (R_a = 0.037 μm) of stainless steel tubes prepared by MAF significantly improved the cleanability of milk residues. The results may indicate that the cleanability of non-protein components of milk residue is affected by surface roughness.