Several industries are subject to demanding performance specifications and complying with more stringent hygiene standards, such as the food processing, health care, and chemical industries.

Complying with these standards and regulations allows these industries to perform and function optimally. In regards to the aforementioned industries, that's where the stainless steel adjustable leveling feet come in.

This article will discuss stainless steel leveling feet, the material they're made of, and the various industries that benefit from investing in stainless steel equipment.

Source: Reid Supply

 

What Are Stainless Steel Leveling Feet?

Stainless steel leveling mounts are industrial-grade products consisting of a threaded stud, called a spindle, mounted on a footplate. These devices enable you to level and support various types of machinery and equipment across different industries. However, considering that they're made of stainless steel, their application is most suitable for food, medical, and chemical (petrol and oil) industries.

The right combination of thread length and thickness (thread size in metric or inch sizes), and footplate diameter ensures maximum stability, adjustability, and safety of your machinery and equipment. It's important to consider several factors like static loads, vibrations, and application, to select the adequate type of adjustable feet.

Why Stainless Steel

Quite simply, stainless steel has certain technical properties that make it suitable for the food and healthcare industries. The biggest of said properties is the material's resistance to corrosion. Keep in mind that we're not discussing oxidization, which is a process commonly mistaken for corrosion.

Oxidation is a process in which materials react with oxygen from the environment, something that's not very desirable when you're working with carbon steel. However, since stainless steels have very low carbon content (less than 0.07%) and high chromium and nickel content (approx 17% and 13%, respectively), these materials also oxidize, but differently.

When exposed to oxygen from the environment, stainless steel oxidizes but does not corrode. They form a layer of Chromium-oxide, which protects stainless steel from the chemical solvents from the environment, giving stainless steel their corrosion resistance. This also makes them chemically stable, in that they don't release any compounds into the environment — something very important for food and healthcare industries.

Food Industry

The food industry usually relies on AISI 304 stainless steel series for food-processing equipment, machinery, and parts. Everything from giant processing tanks, couplings and their fastening bolts, handwheels, valves, latches, knobs, and toggle clamps — absolutely everything that's near processed food must be made of stainless steel — even spring plungers in some cases.

Healthcare Industry

The Healthcare industry usually relies on AISI 316 stainless steel due to better corrosion resistance. Surgical implants are usually made of 316LN which has no nickel and can't cause an immune response. Medical and surgical instruments such as needles and scalpels are single-use only, which are made of 440 stainless steel AISI product line, which has excellent edge retention, but lower corrosion resistance compared to the 316 series.

Stainless Steel Leveling Feet Application in the Food and Medical Industry

Stainless steel leveling feet are mostly threaded into machinery and equipment to level them on uneven floors in sanitary environments, such as food-processing areas. This helps create a space between the equipment and the floor, allowing you to clean underneath and make the environment even more hygienic.

However, the use of stainless-steel leveling feet has a massive drawback that’s inherent to their design - screw or helical threads. As a result, the grooves in the threaded studs, like the one connected to a rubber pad or plastic base in swivel leveling feet, tend to accumulate dirt, and biohazardous matter, which can act as an infectious containment in an otherwise hygienic environment.

The same applies to jig assemblies, which are basically stud leveling feet, but with a metal plate instead of washers. These are more commonly used in the food industry rather than healthcare, as they’re better suited for heavy-duty applications. Their downside is that they’re mostly made of high-carbon steel, which rusts, and has a high risk of contaminating its environment. On top of everything, it also accumulates dirt and biohazardous material in its threads.

Fortunately, stainless steel leveling feet manufacturers for food processing and healthcare industries offer hygienic thread covers that prevent contaminants from settling in the grooves. During the installation process, these covers are mounted onto threads and cover the groves, preventing any type of dirt from accumulating into the threads. That leaves us with tapped bores in the equipment used for mounting the feet.

Threaded studs are difficult to clean, but threaded bores are nearly impossible to sanitize without disassembling the leveling foot and using very powerful solvents. Luckily, you can place silicone seals on each end of the threaded stud, pressing against the borehole to create a tight seal. This prevents the accumulation of harmful matter in and around the leveling feet assembly. Tapped machine feet aren’t really used in either industry, where high levels of hygiene are required.

However, not all applications within the food and healthcare industries require stainless steel. For example, casters, which are found nearly everywhere, from gurneys to carts to racks can be made of zinc-plated carbon steel, as long as they do not come into contact with organic matter since zinc tends to be a toxic contaminant.

Lastly, some rotary equipment across both industries requires shock-dampener mounts, which makes stainless steel feet unsuitable. Instead, the manufacturers catering to the healthcare and food industry have devised anti-vibration mounts and leveling pads made of body-safe silicone, which is hygienic material that doesn’t trigger an immune response and is easy to clean due to its hygienic design.

Summary

Stainless steel leveling feet are a fantastic way to level various types of machinery and equipment in the food processing and healthcare industries. Their biggest selling points are that they don't corrode and hence do not release any metal contaminants and that they're easily cleaned and unaffected by cleaning and sanitizing solvents.