Patent ID: 10843212

Abstract:
Some pressure washers include units for introduction of detergents and other chemicals into the water stream; however, it is desirable to obtain sterilized cleaning water without them, such that use in, for instance, food preparation processes can be implemented. With a sufficiently high temperature super-heated water stream, all process equipment, including pipework, that comes into contact with sterile process materials, can be cleaned, de-greased and sterilized both with the spray jet using water alone whilst not contributing endotoxins, microbial contamination or particles. Merely raising the temperature of water in a conventional pressure washer could cause components to fail, if they were not designed to operate at such high temperatures. In the present invention, the pump (25) supplies a relatively low volume of water at a relatively high pressure to the boiler (13), allowing the boiler (13) to heat that volume of water to a relatively high temperature. In contrast, if a higher volume of water were desired over a given time period, the pump would have to supply it at a comparatively lower pressure (which is undesirable) and/or the boiler would only be able to heat it to a comparatively lower temperature over that same time period (which is also undesirable). Increased working temperatures on a hose (3) will reduce its maximum working pressure; however, by using a PTFE hose as in the present invention, the maximum working pressure at 170 degrees may be up to 17 MPa.