Hygiene station in the bakery industry

The floor-level, technologically advanced employee main station is the central hygiene access system for a bakery, designed for a 26 m² room (length: 7.5 m). It represents an unavoidable, process-controlled hygiene route that guides employees from the social and changing rooms to the production area.

The airlock fulfils the highest hygiene requirements in accordance with HACCP and IFS Food and is specially adapted to the particular conditions of the bakery industry - including flour dust exposure, high humidity and the need for consistent personnel hygiene.

1. access control with time recording

As soon as they enter the airlock, employees pass through an RFID-based access control system, which is directly linked to the internal time recording system. Only authorised employees are granted access. At the same time, the start of working hours is documented - an integration that ensures both hygienic safety and operational efficiency.

2. intelligent hand cleaning with access control

The sluice works with a foolproof 2-hand soap application via the Soap-Control Highline:

• Sensor-controlled release: a defined amount of soap is only applied when both hands are correctly inserted and recognised.

• The vandal-proof, electric turnstile is only released after the soap has been successfully applied - this makes compliance with the hygiene process unavoidable.

This is followed by paperless hand cleaning and drying using the Dyson wash+dry tap with Jetstream technology. This combines contact-free washing and drying directly at the washing station, thus preventing water carry-over on the floors.

Industry-specific benefit: In the bakery industry, where flour dust is a potential source of contamination, the contact-free washing process significantly reduces the risk of cross-contamination from contact surfaces.

An additional plus: the washing trough is equipped with three washing stations to ensure sufficient capacity for a smooth process even during shift changes or breaks.

3. sole cleaning and disinfection with integrated hand disinfection (forced guidance)

In the further course of the hygiene station, the employees pass through the Clean-Check 1500 L Highline overflow sole cleaner, which ensures effective and energy-efficient sole cleaning and disinfection in a single step.

• Combined cleaning and disinfection process:
  The soles and sole edges are both mechanically cleaned and hygienically disinfected by rotating brush rollers in conjunction with a specially formulated mixture of water and cleaning agent - in just one pass, without an additional disinfection zone.

• Automatic activation and stop when entering and exiting:
  The brush rollers are only activated when the step grate is actually entered and stop immediately when it is exited. This is made possible by a combination of robust spring cup technology and a fully encapsulated, highly sensitive sensor system with an extremely short response time.
  
  This intelligent system prevents idle times and thus significantly reduces the consumption of electricity, water and chemicals - in comparison, many conventional sole cleaning systems on the market work with outdated sensor technology, usually in the form of simple reflective light scanners integrated into the railing. This technology is much less accurate at recognising personnel - it reacts several seconds before they actually enter the cleaning area and remains active even after they leave the system, as there is no exact position detection. As a result, the brush rollers run for an unnecessarily long time, which leads to considerable additional consumption of water, cleaning chemicals and energy.
  
  By activating and deactivating the cleaning process with pinpoint accuracy, our Highline series sets new standards in terms of resource efficiency, reduced operating costs and sustainable hygiene automation - a real advantage for companies with high throughput, such as in the bakery industry.

• Reliable detection - regardless of clothing:
  Another decisive advantage: the spring pot technology used works independently of reflections. This means that even people wearing dark work clothing are reliably detected, which often leads to problems with conventional systems with optical sensors (e.g. diffuse reflection sensors).

Hand disinfection via touchless 2-hand automatic disinfection: The employee inserts both hands into the sensor area of the disinfection module at the same time as cleaning the soles. The turnstile is electrically released as soon as the sensors, which cannot be outwitted, recognise the correct position of both hands and wetting is completed via four full-cone nozzles.

Hygiene plus for bakeries: sole cleaning not only protects against the spread of germs, but also prevents the introduction of flour residues or dough residues, which would be hygienically and technically problematic in production.

4. return path with hygiene protection

The return route from production to the social and changing rooms or to the sanitary areas is via a separate sole cleaning system with an integrated electric turnstile. This return airlock is also linked to the company-wide RFID-based time recording and access control system. The turnstile is only released once the employee has been properly "logged out".

• Forced sole cleaning when leaving production:
  Sole cleaning on the way back effectively prevents the spread of dirt and germs into the sensitive social areas and at the same time reduces the cleaning effort in the building in the long term.

• Avoidance of congestion and bottlenecks:
  The structural separation of the return route from the access to production ensures clear routing. Particularly during shift changes and breaks, this concept equalises the flow of people and effectively prevents staff congestion at the main hygiene sluice. As a result, hygiene throughput remains efficient and compliant even with high staff volumes.

Result:
The return route guidance system combines hygiene protection with organisational added value - a well thought-out solution for companies with high throughput and clear hygiene rules, such as in the bakery industry.

5. anti-slip construction and prevention of water carry-over

The entire sluice is integrated at floor level and fitted with stainless steel gratings. This ensures:

• Optimum slip resistance: the gridded stainless steel gratings provide a permanently slip-resistant surface, even in the presence of moisture or cleaning residues.

• Targeted drainage of cleaning fluids: Excess water or water/cleaning agent mixture runs off directly into the collection areas below (floor drains).

• Minimisation of water puddles: Thanks to the open grating structure, no standing pools of water form, significantly reducing the risk of accidents caused by slipping.

• Easy cleaning: The level integration and removable grating elements allow the drains to be quickly exposed for maintenance cleaning, ensuring a smooth hygiene process.

Benefits for bakery operations:
In areas with frequent cleaning cycles and high humidity, this design reliably prevents water from being carried over into neighbouring production and social areas. At the same time, occupational safety is always guaranteed when there is an increased number of personnel.

6. safety features & standardised escape route in accordance with ASR A2.3

To fulfil the legal requirements for escape and rescue routes in accordance with workplace regulation ASR A2.3, the main employee interlock was equipped with a mechanically operated railing gate that has an integrated anti-panic locking system and a door guard with pre-alarm function.

• Manual opening in the event of panic:
  In an emergency, staff can open the railing gate manually by simply pressing the door handle in the direction of escape. The anti-panic lock ensures that the door can be opened at any time in an emergency, even if it is blocked or secured.

• Door guard with pre-alarm:
  When the door is opened, the door guard is automatically activated, triggering an acoustic and/or visual pre-alarm. This signals that the escape route has been used and that a check or re-securing may be necessary.

• One-sided opening direction - designed to be escape-proof:
  The railing door can only be opened in the direction of escape; a fixed turning knob is fitted on the opposite side to prevent unauthorised access from the opposite direction.

• Door clear width designed for the number of people:
  The clear width of the door has been adapted to the maximum number of people who may need to use this escape route at the same time in accordance with ASR A2.3. This ensures that evacuation can take place quickly and safely.

Conclusion:
This safety equipment not only ensures hygienically controlled access, but also fulfils all applicable regulations for emergency and evacuation situations - without compromising on personal or operational safety.

7 Intelligent control & user-friendly process management

The entire hygiene station is equipped with a logically structured, fully automatic control system that synchronises all modules and ensures that hygiene-relevant processes are carried out in a clearly defined sequence. The employee is guided intuitively through all steps - from access control to the final turnstile release.

Flexibility thanks to the Siemens logo! 8 Control system

At the heart of the control system is the tried-and-tested Siemens Logo! 8, which not only stands for reliability, but above all for high flexibility in operation and parameterisation:

• Customised dosing:
  The dosing quantities of the soap and disinfectant used can be set easily, independently and specifically for each operation directly on the control unit.

• Customisable process sequences:
  Time sequences, such as delaying the release of the turnstile if more intensive sole cleaning is required, can also be easily programmed and adapted on a daily basis.

• Visualisation & error control:
  Process visualisations, fault messages or alarm signals can be integrated as an option to provide immediate feedback in the event of faulty processes and inform staff efficiently.

Future-proof with Industry 4.0 connection

The hygiene station from Mohn not only guarantees the highest hygiene standards, but can also be upgraded to a smart machine if required:

• WLAN adapter & cloud connectivity:
  With an integrable WLAN module, the control unit can be conveniently integrated into the company network - for centralised logging or remote diagnostics, for example.

• "Intelligent Control" process visualisation:
  The connection to the in-house visualisation system enables transparent evaluation and real-time monitoring of all hygiene processes, in line with modern Industry 4.0 applications.

Conclusion:
The control technology used not only ensures a hygienically flawless process, but also offers high adaptability, digital expandability and long-term investment security - a real plus for manufacturing companies such as the bakery industry, where efficiency and traceability are increasingly crucial.

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