Stainless steel has delivered confidence in the production and quality of the globally-trending beverage, kombucha.

Kombucha - also locally known in Australia as 'booch' - is a fermented tea drink, produced using sugar and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). Its composition dates back thousands of years but the drink has grown in popularity over recent times due to its health and probiotic benefits.

Remedy is currently the largest kombucha producer in Australia and New Zealand and the third largest globally. With kombucha market demand expected to grow 15% year-on-year to 2030, Remedy took the lead to consolidate

When you last snacked on some almonds, you may not have given much thought to how they were harvested and made ready for your consumption. However, like almost all food and beverages, on their journey to your snack bowl, they encountered some stainless steel bearing equipment.

Australia is a dominant producer of almonds, with the Murray Darling region accounting for almost a third of production. Kooba, located a few kilometres south of Griffith in south-central New South Wales and off the Murrumbidgee River, is the site of a large almond orchard having received significant recent investment.

Irrigation is critical to

Stainless steel has delivered the lifeblood for the evolving brewery operation of one of Australia’s largest independent beer businesses.

Brick Lane was founded by 25 shareholders in 2017 with the vision to grow a sustainable, more inclusive, independent brewery focused on quality, flexibility, and sustainability. Delivering its own craft beer, ciders, seltzers and other drinks, Brick Lane extends its facilities to the wider brewing community, offering its brewing and packaging services to like-minded partners to encourage and support the growth of independent and craft beer in Australia.

Critical to Brick Lane’s success was the design and construction of a state-of-the-art

Australia is in a craft beer renaissance. The materials used in beer production has evolved over the years, and today, stainless steel is the material of choice and industry standard in modern brewing. Let’s look at some of the benefits.

 
Corrosion resistant

Stainless steels are excellent combatants of corrosion. This resistance to attack is due to the naturally occurring chromium-rich oxide film formed on the surface of the steel, which self-repairs in the presence of oxygen.

With the correct selection of alloys and application of good design principles and proper fabrication practices, stainless steel equipment will perform successfully. 300-series

Water quality plays a crucial role in the decontamination and reprocessing of reusable medical devices, and stainless steel has helped facilitate the standard required for their sterilisation. 

Stainless steel continues to be the material of choice for commercial kitchen equipment, meeting and exceeding the rigorous demands of busy food service operations.

World-class processing systems demand high quality products, innovative features, and long-term yield increase, all of which have been delivered through superior workmanship, engineering, and the use of stainless steel.

The aim of AS 1528: Stainless steel tubes and tube fittings for food processing and hygienic applications is to standardise hygienic tube and fittings for use in dairy, food and beverage manufacturing. It has been successful in maintaining the required food safety standards in Australia and New Zealand.

A growing demand for quality wines in China has seen its third-largest winemaker venture onto Australian soil with a new state-of-the-art winery incorporating over 800t of stainless steel. 

World-class infrastructure demands high quality products and long-term asset performance, both of which have been delivered through superior workmanship and the use of stainless steel.

The new facility in Merrifield Estate on Melbourne's outer northern fringe will allow Dulux to step into the next generation of paint manufacturing technology and innovation. Dulux's aim was to design and construct a state-of-the-art facility, so using quality products was essential to achieve this. Stainless steel in 300 series grades was an integral part of the project design, including storage vessels and over 10,000m of food grade, quality tube complying with AS1528.

Wave Discs Revolutionises Traditional Drying Process

In the search to find a more efficient way of manufacturing industrial disc dryers for the meat-rendering industry, Melbourne-based engineering company Pinches Group has developed a new technology called Wave Disc.

Over 17 tonnes of stainless steel has been used for the upgrade of a premier meat processing plant to support the growing local and global demands of Australian red meat supply.

Connections are vital

Any visit to a dairy, beverage or food processing plant will drive home the critical importance of the connections between the tanks, mixers, driers, pumps, etc. The image above (courtesy of TFG Group) showing an image of a brewery is a typical example. These tubes and/or pipes carry the process materials, the heating or cooling or wash water, gases, and also dispose of the wastes.

Stainless steel has helped deliver improved environmental performance and increased efficiency for a major food production company.

Coca-Cola Amatil is reducing the carbon footprint of its 600ml PET bottles by 22% with the help of stainless steel.

This is an abridged version of a story that first appeared under the same title in Stainless Steel Focus No. 07/2012.

The Nickel Institute's director of promotion, Peter Cutler, and consultant Gary Coates, reveal some of the reasons for the continuing popularity of nickel in stainless steels.

Stainless steel is everywhere in our world and contributes to all aspects of our lives. We find stainless steel in our homes, in our buildings and offices, in the vehicles we travel in and in every imaginable industrial sector. Yet the first patents for stainless steel were issued only 100 years ago.

How

As bottled water continues to gain popularity in Australia, maintaining the quality and purity of the water extracted from natural springs is paramount.

A worrying trend among Australia's major resource companies is the increasing amount of engineering, detailing and fabrication work being sent offshore - a move that has had significant impact on local fabrication. But there are some positive signs in the food and beverage sector that local fabricators are more than capable of meeting design and fabrication expectations.

Stainless steel forms a significant part of a beef abattoir, including the conveyors, fixed and elevated platforms, sterilisers, chutes, hand wash basins and, of late, water supply and wastewater piping. The stainless component may now expand even further in new abattoirs with the recent development of cast stainless steel skids and forged hooks for use on dressing conveyors.