Hoses and gaskets made of silicone: The material’s strengths in the process industry

When selecting silicone components for your process plant, there is more to consider than just material properties. It’s about ensuring high operational reliability, proven hygiene and long service life – and knowing when silicone is the right choice and when it isn’t. Silicone is often the preferred choice for technical components in the process industry because the material is flexible, hygienic and resistant to many media.
This guide is written for those of you working in operations, maintenance or procurement within the food, beverage or pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors. We look at both the general benefits and the factors that actually determine the choice of a component: specifications, chemical compatibility and documentation.

Silicone is a versatile, heat-resistant and flexible material, made from silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. The combination of these elements results in a material with superior durability, heat resistance and flexibility. The combination makes the material a popular choice for various applications across the process industry – particularly in food and pharmaceutical production.

In food and pharmaceutical production in particular, the material addresses a number of critical challenges:

• Handling temperature fluctuations: Silicone withstands rapid shifts between heating and cooling without losing its sealing properties. This ensures stability in, for example, pasteurisation processes at dairies and breweries.
• Effective cleaning and hygiene: The material’s smooth surface minimises the risk of residual products becoming trapped. This allows you to streamline cleaning routines and maintain uncompromising hygiene in your facilities.
• Continuous visual inspection: As silicone is often transparent, your operators can continuously monitor the flow of liquid. By combining transparent silicone hoses with sight glasses in the process line, staff can quickly detect even minor changes in flow. This visual inspection serves as an important safety measure to prevent costly errors.

Silicone has some highly advantageous properties that are rarely found in other types of material. Silicone stands out primarily for its exceptional flexibility and mouldability compared, for example, to popular plastics such as PTFE and FEP, which are more rigid in their shape.

For a maintenance manager, these technical advantages mean fewer day-to-day concerns. As the material does not react with the process medium, unexpected failures of hoses and gaskets are avoided. This extends service intervals and provides more predictable maintenance costs.

Silicone is generally a good choice when working with aqueous media, foodstuffs, alcohols and hygiene-critical processes. The overview below is for guidance only. When the medium becomes more aggressive, particularly at high temperatures, high concentrations or with prolonged contact times, you should always check the specific chemical compatibility for the particular grade of silicone.

Our extensive product range includes a selection of products made from silicone. Our food-grade silicone hoses are a key component in many production processes, as they are non-toxic, tasteless and extremely resistant to temperature fluctuations. 
Our range of silicone-based hose solutions covers a wide variety of specific needs in the process industry:

• The Clearway series (for liquids with a high alcohol content): A popular and FDA-approved series, particularly well-suited to the production of beverages with high alcohol content. Both our Clearway-D and  Clearway-SD are manufactured in an ISO 14644-1 cleanroom, ensuring an extremely clean hose that is completely free of dust and particles from the outset. 
• Pureway-SD Antistatic Platinum (For suction, pressure and ATEX zones): Our Pureway-SD is a platinum-cured, antistatic silicone hose for foodstuffs, cosmetics and liquids with a high alcohol content. It's the obvious choice if you need to manage static electricity whilst meeting high hygiene standards. The hose is suitable for both suction and pressure applications, for example on filling lines, during mixing or in vacuum applications.
• Platinum Cleanroom (For pharmaceutical and biotech environments): What do you do when the process requires sterility, documented cleanliness and minimal risk of contamination? Platinum Cleanroom is the right choice for pharmaceutical and biotech environments with sterile processes or single-use-based flows. The hose is platinum-cured, handled in an ISO 7 cleanroom and supplied in double packaging, providing you with a solution that is perfectly suited to critical media transfers – for example, between bioreactors, filtration and filling.

As an essential complement, we offer silicone union gaskets that ensure leak-free and controlled processes throughout the plant. Gaskets are used for static connections – for example, between pipes and fittings – where they prevent the leakage of liquids and gases. They are mission-critical components that you should always keep in stock, as a leaky gasket can bring the entire production line to a halt.
Our silicone gaskets are designed to deliver superior performance in various industrial applications, such as clamps for dairy pipe unions and butterfly valves. They offer high thermal stability, high flexibility and excellent chemical resistance. Whether you work in high-pressure environments or deal with aggressive chemicals, these gaskets are incredibly reliable.

In production environments with strict requirements, it's not enough for the material to perform well in practice – this must be documented. Depending on the product and quality, the following approvals, regulations and standards may be relevant for silicone components:

• EU Regulation 1935/2004 – framework regulation for materials in contact with food
• FDA 21 CFR 177.2600 – rubber articles intended for repeated food contact
• USP Class VI and ISO 10993 – pharmaceutical application and biocompatibility
• E.P. 3.1.9 (European Pharmacopoeia) – silicone elastomers for pharmaceutical use
• 3-A Sanitary Standards – hygienic design for equipment and plant

When we supply silicone solutions, the necessary documentation is provided so that you can demonstrate compliance to the authorities and within your own quality management system.

With over 40 years’ experience in the process industry, we have encountered a wide variety of processes, production methods, set-ups and requirements. By choosing us as your expert partner, you gain access to technical advice that goes beyond the product itself. This helps you make well-informed choices that deliver long-term results and operational predictability.

Take the first step towards improving your production process with our silicone products. Contact our sales team now on +45 7020 0422 or by email at inquiry@alfotech.eu. We’d be happy to arrange an informal meeting with you so that, together, we can identify your needs.

Yes, our entire range of silicone hoses is food-grade and is therefore suitable for direct contact with food and drink. When you order a silicone hose from us, documentation is always provided so that the approval can be verified by the authorities.

Silicone hoses for the process industry are typically designed for a wide temperature range – often from approximately -50°C to +180°C, and some qualities can withstand temperatures of up to around +200°C, depending on their construction and wall thickness. This makes the material suitable for cold media flows, cooling circuits and hot processes, where other polymeric materials quickly become brittle or soft. A key advantage of silicone is that it withstands rapid temperature changes without cracking or losing its sealing ability when used correctly. It's a clear advantage in, for example, pasteurisation processes, where the product cycles between hot and cold zones, and where the hoses are often also subjected to CIP/SIP cleaning with hot media and chemicals.

Silicone, PTFE and FEP are all materials used for hoses and tubing in the process industry, but they have different strengths. Silicone is highly flexible, withstands severe bending and vibrations, and is often transparent, making it ideal for installations where you need easy assembly, visual flow control and good temperature resistance in day-to-day use. FEP and PTFE belong to the fluoroplastic family and are generally stiffer than silicone, but in return they offer very high chemical resistance and – particularly in the case of PTFE – a significantly higher maximum temperature. FEP is transparent and has high chemical resistance, whilst PTFE is typically milky white and is the first choice when near-total chemical inertness and very high process temperatures are required.

Yes, silicone hoses are generally suitable for use in systems with high hygiene requirements, and they can be incorporated into CIP routines provided the chosen hose type is compatible with the specific cleaning agents, temperatures and cycle times. Silicone has a smooth, non-porous surface that makes it harder for product residues and biofilm to adhere, which supports effective cleaning and rapid drainage.