HMI symbols for food & beverage production

1 · Raw material handling & ingredient dosing

Bulk silos, weigh hoppers, screw conveyors moving flour, sugar, malt, etc. Vibrating feeders for portioning.

• Silos and weigh hoppers — tank outline with level; the weight readout belongs next to the hopper, not inside it, so it stays legible at every level fill
• Sphere & bullet tanks (CO₂, N₂) — pressure is the number that matters; low-pressure alarm as a badge, not a color change of the tank
• Screw conveyors — screw symbol with direction arrow; dosing screws run in short bursts, so "stopped" is the normal state
• Bucket and apron conveyors (vertical lift, heavy ingredients) — same motor-state logic as any conveyor, plus a blocked-chute badge if you have the sensor

Symbols: community tanks · community conveyors · draw your own in the Symbol Builder

2 · Mixing & cooking

Brew kettles, mash tuns, jacketed mixers. Shell-and-tube and plate heat exchangers for temperature control.

• Jacketed mixer / brew kettle — a stirred vessel (CSTR-style) with agitator state and jacket temperature; the agitator motor follows the 9-state encoding like any motor
• Plate heat exchangers — the P&ID plate-stack symbol with hot/cold inlet and outlet temperatures around it; pasteurizers are this block plus a holding tube and a divert valve
• Shell-and-tube heat exchangers — for steam-heated duties; same four temperatures
• Autoclaves / retorts — horizontal vessel with door state (open / closed / locked) and chamber pressure and temperature; the door interlock deserves its own badge

Symbols: community process equipment · search "exchanger" · Symbol Builder

3 · Fermentation & aging

Beer, yogurt, soy sauce — long residence-time vessels with controlled temperature and pressure.

• Fermenters / pressure tanks — conical-bottom tank with level, temperature per cooling zone and head pressure; a tank farm screen is mostly this one symbol repeated, so keep it compact
• Distillation columns — tall column with reboiler and condenser; on an overview a simple column outline plus top/bottom temperatures is enough

Symbols: search "fermenter" · community tanks · community process equipment · Symbol Builder

4 · Filtration & clarification

• Cartridge / bag filters — generic process filter block; differential pressure is the one number, and a "change filter" badge is more useful than a color fill
• Membrane units (pervaporation, UF, RO) — membrane module with feed / permeate / retentate; show transmembrane pressure
• Centrifugal separators (decanters, disc stack) — bowl speed and torque; the symbol is a horizontal bowl with two outlets

Symbols: search "filter" · community process equipment · Symbol Builder

5 · Dairy & CIP/SIP

Sanitary pumps and 3-A compliant fittings. Solenoid and pneumatic seat valves drive the CIP loop sequencing.

• Solenoid / seat valves — open / closed / travelling plus feedback fault; a CIP route screen is dozens of these, so the valve symbol must stay readable at 24-32 px
• Mix-proof (double-seat) valves — worth a dedicated symbol: two seats, upper and lower, each with its own feedback
• Sanitary centrifugal pumps (end-suction) — pump block, run state, plus the CIP supply pressure while cleaning
• Positive-displacement pumps for viscous product (lobe, PC) — same block family; dry-run protection badge
• Vacuum pumps for tank evacuation — pump block with vacuum readout

Symbols: community valves · community pumps · Symbol Builder

6 · Drying & powder handling

• Spray dryers — tall chamber with atomizer on top and cyclone underneath; inlet/outlet air temperature are the control variables operators watch
• Rotary dryers (tilted drum) — drum rotation state and shell temperature
• Falling-film evaporators — vertical calandria with separator; show steam pressure and product concentration
• Cyclone separators — downstream of every dryer; differential pressure and rotary valve state

Symbols: search "dryer" · community process equipment · Symbol Builder

7 · Packaging line motors

Servo motors for conveyors, fillers, cappers, labelers. VFD-driven AC motors for indexing tables.

• Servo motor with encoder — motor block plus position / in-position state; on packaging lines the "homed" and "following error" conditions matter more than run/stop
• VFD-driven 3-phase motors — motor block with speed percentage; accumulation conveyors change speed constantly, so the readout should be stable (no color flicker)
• Reversible motors (cap orientation, reject diverters) — FWD/REV inside the block
• Stepper motors — same as servo from the operator's point of view; a stalled stepper is a fault, not a stop

Symbols: community motors · search "servo" · Symbol Builder