Monitoring cleaning-in-place of shampoo films using nanovibration technology

Monitoring fouling and cleaning processes has become an important issue to optimize production cycles, increase the quality of the final product and reduce environmental impacts. The aim of the present study is to use controlled nanovibrations to detect the cleaning end-point of hair shampoo removal under different cleaning conditions (temperatures from 31 to 51 °C and flow velocities from 0.14 to 0.47 m/s). A new monitoring tool (mechatronic surface sensor, MSS) was able to relate its output signal with the mass of shampoo attached to the stainless steel (SS) monitored surface. Additionally, the MSS clearly identified when the equipment was cleaned and measure the rate of cleaning by showing the real-time cleaning curves, which depend on the operating conditions.