Computer Use in the Food Manufacturing Industry
Food manufacturing and processing is one of the success stories of the global economy. Food production is now not just a local industry as food products are now transported across the globe allowing a huge variety of products to be available on our supermarket shelves.
One of the reasons for food productions success has been the embracing of modern technology that has allowed many processes in the food production industry to be automated.
The food industry does pose unique challenges when it comes to automation and computerisation such as the prevalence of water in food production areas. Various laws and good working practices mean that food production areas are regularly washed or hosed-down. This can cause obvious problems to computer or touchscreen if they are used nearby as water will have catastrophic effects on any computer system.
Many food production of manufacturing areas turn to waterproof computer enclosures to protect their computer systems from wash down. Industrial computer enclosures are designed to international guidelines to ensure they can operate safely in washdown environments with the waterproof PC enclosure even allowing the systems to be hosed down themselves.
The European IP 65 or International NEMA 4 rating system are often used to describe the waterproofing of a computer enclosure. Many wash down areas contain IP 65 computer enclosures as they can also be manufactured out of food grade stainless steel ensuring they don’t corrode and can continually be kept clean.
Waterproof LCd enclosures and waterproof touchscreen enclosures can also be manufactured from the same material.