Equipment

CIP Systems CIP

DPS designs and fabricates automated clean-in-place systems sized, circuited, and controlled as part of your total facility design. When your CIP supplier is the same team that engineers your tanks, process piping, and automation controls, every spray device, valve, and return line is positioned exactly where the process demands — delivering validated sanitary cleaning with less water, less chemical, and less downtime than retrofit alternatives.

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Equipment Overview

Clean-in-Place Systems Built Around Your Process — Not the Other Way Around

A CIP system is the sanitary backbone of every food and beverage processing facility. It circulates precisely heated cleaning and sanitizing solutions — caustic, acid, and rinse water — through tanks, heat exchangers, filling lines, and interconnecting piping without disassembly. When a CIP system is correctly engineered, it protects product safety, reduces water and chemical consumption, shortens changeover windows, and delivers repeatable sanitization that satisfies FDA 21 CFR Part 117, USDA-FSIS requirements, and third-party audit standards like SQF and BRC. When it is poorly designed, it becomes the single largest source of downtime, chemical waste, and audit findings in the plant.

DPS designs and fabricates automated CIP systems in-house because clean-in-place performance is inseparable from the process it serves. Circuit routing, flow velocity calculations, supply and return tank sizing, chemical concentration control, and temperature ramp profiles all depend on the specific vessels, piping geometry, and production schedule they support. By engineering CIP as a native component of every Design-Build-Manage project — rather than sourcing a generic skid from a catalog — DPS ensures that every spray device, every valve sequence, and every drain pitch is validated against your actual process before the system ships. For facilities operating across multiple production lines or managing multi-product changeovers, this integrated approach eliminates the mismatches that cause re-cleans, extended hold times, and failed ATP swabs.

Applications & Industries

Equipment Applications Across Food and Beverage Manufacturing

Practical engineering solutions designed to improve efficiency, scalability, and operational performance.

  • 1

    Sauces, Marinades & Dressings

    Cooking kettles are the production backbone for tomato-based sauces, vinaigrettes, hot sauces, cheese sauces, and shelf-stable marinades. DPS specifies jacket capacity, agitator geometry, and steam flow rates to hit precise cook temperatures and hold times required by each product’s scheduled process, while high-shear agitation options ensure emulsion stability and particle-size consistency across batches ranging from pilot scale to full production volumes.
  • 2

    Soups, Stews & Prepared Foods

    Chunked-ingredient products such as soups and stews demand gentle agitation that maintains piece integrity while preventing scorching on the heat-transfer surface. DPS kettles for prepared foods applications incorporate slow-speed sweep agitators with PTFE scraper blades, zoned jacket heating to prevent localized hot spots, and large-diameter bottom outlets that discharge whole vegetable and protein pieces without damage.
  • 3

    Dairy Processing

    From pasteurized fluid milk bases and cultured products to cheese sauce, yogurt premixes, and ice cream bases, dairy applications require kettle specifications that satisfy both thermal performance and 3-A Sanitary Standards. DPS builds dairy kettles with electropolished product-contact surfaces, sanitary agitator shaft seals, CIP-ready nozzle configurations, and temperature instrumentation validated for HACCP critical control point monitoring.
  • 4

    Confectionery & Sweetened Products

    Sugar syrups, caramel, toffee, and fruit fillings require precise temperature ramping to achieve target Brix concentrations without scorching or crystallization. DPS configures cooking kettles for confectionery with high-pressure jacket ratings for rapid heat delivery, programmable multi-stage cook profiles, and scrape-surface agitation that keeps viscous product moving continuously across the heated wall.
  • 5

    Co-Packing & Contract Manufacturing

    Contract manufacturers running dozens of SKUs across multiple product categories need cooking kettles that change over rapidly and document every batch electronically for multi-standard audit compliance. DPS builds multi-recipe automation into the kettle’s PLC and SCADA architecture, enabling push-button recipe selection, automatic CIP sequencing between product changeovers, and electronic batch records that satisfy SQF, BRC, and retailer-specific food safety audit requirements simultaneously.
System Specifications

System Specifications and Design Parameters

The specifications below represent DPS’s standard CIP fabrication and engineering capability. Every system is custom-designed to match your facility’s specific circuit count, soil characteristics, production schedule, and regulatory environment.

Parameter Specification
System Configurations Single-tank, multi-tank, and eductor-based recovery CIP; portable or centralized skid-mount
Supply Tank Capacity 50 to 1,500 gallons per tank (wash, rinse, sanitize, recovery)
Circuit Capacity Systems engineered from 2 to 20+ independent CIP circuits per facility
Materials of Construction 304 and 316L stainless steel; all wetted surfaces food-contact grade
Sanitary Standards 3-A Sanitary Standards compliant; tri-clamp connections; sloped drain construction
Supply Pump Sizing Centrifugal sanitary pumps sized per circuit: 10–300 GPM at calculated system head
Spray Device Integration Rotary spray heads, static spray balls, or high-impact tank cleaning devices; coverage validated per vessel geometry
Chemical Dosing Automated concentration control via conductivity measurement; compatible with caustic, acid, PAA, and chlorinated sanitizers
Heating Method Steam injection, electric immersion, or shell-and-tube heat exchange; wash temperatures up to 185°F
Controls & Automation PLC-controlled sequencing with HMI touchscreen; SCADA integration, recipe-based cycle management, data logging
Regulatory Compliance Designed for FDA 21 CFR Part 117, USDA FSIS, SQF, BRC, FSSC 22000, PMO/Grade A dairy requirements
Documentation Functional design specification, I/O list, weld records, material certs, FAT protocol, CIP validation support package
Project Verification Questions

Common Questions About CIP Systems CIP

Lead times range from 10 to 18 weeks depending on system complexity, number of circuits, and the level of automation integration required. A straightforward two-tank, four-circuit CIP skid with standard PLC controls falls toward the shorter end. Large centralized systems serving 15 or more circuits with full SCADA integration, recipe management, and custom HMI development require the longer timeline. For integrated Design-Build-Manage projects, CIP fabrication is scheduled against the master project timeline so the skid arrives precisely when the facility is ready for mechanical tie-in — not months early consuming warehouse space or weeks late holding up commissioning.
Yes. We regularly evaluate legacy CIP installations at existing food and beverage facilities across the country. Common upgrade scopes include adding automated chemical dosing to replace manual bucket additions, retrofitting conductivity-based phase detection for validated cycle transitions, integrating the CIP sequence into a modern PLC/SCADA platform, and expanding circuit capacity to serve new processing lines added during facility expansion. Our process engineers assess the existing system, identify performance gaps, and design targeted upgrades that maximize the value retained in the original equipment.
During engineering, spray device selection and placement are modeled against each vessel’s internal geometry — diameter, sidewall height, head profile, and nozzle penetration locations — to ensure full surface impingement at the design flow rate. During commissioning, we conduct riboflavin testing or equivalent visual coverage verification to confirm that every interior surface receives direct contact from the spray pattern. For regulated environments under USDA or PMO jurisdiction, DPS provides the validation documentation package including cycle parameter records, coverage test results, and ATP or micro-swab data as required by your food safety program.
Our CIP systems integrate natively with DPS-manufactured vessels because spray nozzle bosses, supply and return ports, and valve locations are coordinated at the design stage. For third-party equipment already installed in your facility, our engineers gather dimensional data and connection details during the site survey phase and design the CIP circuits to match existing port sizes, locations, and flow requirements. The PLC program accommodates both DPS and third-party equipment on the same CIP supply, with circuit-specific recipes that adjust flow, temperature, chemical concentration, and cycle duration per the cleaning requirements of each asset.
Routine maintenance includes periodic inspection of gaskets, spray devices, and check valves for wear; calibration verification of conductivity probes, temperature sensors, and flow meters at intervals aligned with your food safety plan; and pump seal inspection per manufacturer schedules. DPS delivers a complete operations and maintenance manual with every system, including recommended spare parts lists and preventive maintenance intervals. For clients under DPS project management, we can incorporate CIP maintenance into ongoing facility support scopes so that system performance stays consistent long after commissioning.