Food and beverage processing facilities operate under a combination of equipment reliability and regulatory constraints that most industrial environments don’t share. Mixers, blenders, agitators, and conveyors run in environments that require routine washdown with water and chemical sanitizers. The equipment that seals product in and contaminants out has to function reliably in those conditions — and it has to do so with materials that are approved for contact with food-grade environments.

Conventional contact seals fail in this environment for the same reasons they fail everywhere else — they wear. A lip seal that degrades under continuous shaft rotation develops a leak path. Mechanical packing on a mixer stuffing box requires regular adjustment and eventually scores the shaft. In a standard industrial plant, that’s a maintenance problem. In a food processing facility, it’s a product loss problem, a food safety problem, and a regulatory problem simultaneously.

Bearing failures on motors and drives in wet, high-humidity environments compound the issue. IP-rated motors running in washdown environments still require positive bearing protection — the motor enclosure alone does not prevent moisture from entering the bearing housing through the shaft seal over time. Bearing failures on perishable product lines stop production at exactly the moment stoppages are most expensive.

Kelley Industrial specifies permanent, maintenance-free solutions for both problems. The Air Mizer Food Grade shaft seal eliminates product leakage from mixer and agitator shafts without wearing parts or shaft contact. IP66-rated Inpro/Seal bearing isolators protect motor and drive bearings from moisture ingress in washdown service for the lifetime of the equipment.