On a food, dairy or pharmaceutical line the hose is not judged on whether it holds pressure. It is judged on whether it drains, whether it cleans, and whether you can prove both to somebody with a clipboard.
What this service does to a hose
Every corrugation is a valley, and a valley holds liquid. On a horizontal run that is a series of small reservoirs of product that the CIP cycle has to reach and clear. Get the routing wrong — a sag, a low point, a hose that rises before it falls — and the line will pass a pressure test and fail a swab.
The second mechanism is the cleaning itself. Hot caustic, nitric and peracetic acid are all harder on stainless than the product ever is, and they run at temperature. The third is steam-in-place: every SIP cycle is a thermal cycle, and a line sterilised twice a day is accumulating fatigue at the corrugation crests whether or not anyone is counting.
What we would fit
| Element | What we would supply | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hose | 316L annular corrugated | Molybdenum for the chlorides in CIP water and in the product |
| Ends | Tri-clamp to ISO 2852 / DIN 32676, DIN 11851 union, or ISO 2037 tube end | Crevice-free at the joint, and strippable for inspection |
| Welds | Full penetration, crevice-free, internally dressed | A weld bead is a crevice and a crevice is a finding |
| Liner | PTFE smooth bore where full drainability is required | Turns the corrugated bore into a straight one |
| Finish | To the Ra your specification states | Surface finish is a number, not an adjective — tell us the number |
What we would not fit, and what happens
Interlock hose. The seam is open, so it is neither pressure-tight nor cleanable. It has no place inside a product line.
304L where the CIP water carries chlorides. It will pit, and it will pit under the deposits you cannot see.
A hose installed so it cannot drain. This is the most common finding and it is an installation decision, not a product one. The installation guide covers the geometries.
What we need to size it
| We need | Because |
|---|---|
| Product, and the CIP and SIP chemistry | The cleaning cycle is usually the harder duty |
| SIP temperature, and cycles per day | That is the fatigue number |
| Surface finish required, as an Ra figure | "Sanitary finish" means different things in different plants |
| End connections and size standard | Tri-clamp, DIN and ISO are not interchangeable |
| How the hose is routed and whether it can fall | Drainability is decided by the installation |