"Leave nothing to chance"
The Paulaner brewery in Munich has completely renovated one of its returnable lines. HEUFT has brought the whole area between the washing machine and the filler up to date with the latest technological developments within the framework of this major project. With success: the equipment which has been installed ensures a dynamic, harmonious and quiet container transport as well as a supply of empty bottles which are of the correct type and free from defects.
Uwe Daebel is enthusiastic. "I have never experienced such a perfect achievement during my 24 year long career with the Paulaner brewery" reports the head of department for filling and packaging technology of the long-established German market leader for naturally cloudy wheat beer and the leading exporter of beer specialities from Bavaria. The qualified brewing engineer knows that "the HEUFT company works according to the principle: ‘leave nothing to chance’. The co-operation with the planning company responsible for the overall plan and my employees was always impeccable, highly professional and characterised by high integrative achievement. The installation of the equipment up to commissioning was carried out in a calm and relaxed manner which was almost frightening. The result is excellent and we are sure that we have made the right decision."
An energy-efficient drive system for the conveyors
Mr Daebel justifies the fact that the brewery, which sold more that 2.7 million hectolitres of beer in the past year, chose HEUFT as its project partner in order to renew the complete section between the bottle cleaning machine and the filler along line 5 for returnables on the one hand with the positive features of the HEUFT beetec: we became aware of the new drive system for container conveyors at the last drinktec exhibition and were already enthusiastic about the advantages of this technology compared with the well-known options then." No wonder: after all the servo direct drive manages completely without gears in order to achieve a high dynamic control characteristic and to drive the conveyors precisely with maximum speed precision. The energy used is converted directly into movement practically without any frictional losses. As a result the HEUFT beetec achieves an efficiency of 90% and uses up to 30% less electricity than conventional three-phase asynchronous drives. Completely encapsulated, without an opening towards the outside and practically without any wearing parts it is not only particularly quiet but also extremely hygiene-friendly and easy to maintain. An electrician does not have to be consulted if one of the 17 HEUFT beetec motors installed at the Paulaner brewery has to be replaced.
HEUFT has also taken up a leading position at the prestigious Munich brewery as regards conveyors and conveyor control systems. It was also obvious in this case to rely on the systems engineers from Burgbrohl. Mr Daebel explains: “The area between cleaning machines and the filler infeed is virtually independent. Therefore it made sense in our opinion to place the complete technology in one hand.” Consequently it was decided to engage the HEUFT company to modify the existing multi-lane conveyors between the washing machine and the pressureless combiner and install a new conveyor control system, the HEUFT synchron DP, in this area. The conveyor control system “is an extremely important element in supplying the line with bottles” explains the brewing engineer. “The container transport from the pressureless combiner to the filler was dealt with by the HEUFT company completely in terms of the mechanics and the control system.” The HEUFT conveyor transports the containers carefully and quietly along this section of the line and the HEUFT synchron TX ensures that the bottle flow is harmonious, free of impact pressure and without gaps there. Thus the filler which processes up to 55,000 bottles per hour is always optimally supplied with containers.
100% detection reliability
In addition the project includes all the control and inspection technologies in this area. Consequently an out-of-date rotary system for sorting and inspecting empty bottles was replaced with two new straight-through systems. “HEUFT is the market leader in inline technology” is how the brewing engineer justified this step. “The development of these linear machines can be traced back completely to the company.” The HEUFT SX creates brand purity by rejecting foreign bottles and empty containers which are still closed. The sorting system is equipped with optical technologies for detecting shape, colour, embossing and closures for this. A single-lane container transport leads to the new HEUFT InLine empty bottle inspector from there. It is convincing due to its intuitively understandable operating surface, its easily accessible construction in accordance with the HEUFT CleanDesign including a roof table for optimal hygiene and the possibility to clean completely with foam and of course its unique precision when detecting faults: the system reliably tracks down foreign objects, chips and cracks etc. during the extensive optical base, sidewall and finish inspection and removes the bottles in question from the production flow. The same applies to lye bottles. Because according to Mr Daebel “they are probably the worst which can happen to a filling plant”. Therefore HEUFT fluid modules for detecting residual liquid were integrated in both inspection devices for safety purposes. An additional module was installed just before the filler.
The detection performance of these systems was extensively checked by an independent expert during the final acceptance. The result is impressive: “All the criteria determined by us were fulfilled by 100% during repeated throughputs” said Mr Daebel, “not a single foreign bottle or faulty bottle remained undetected”. In addition the extremely low noise emission in the section of the Paulaner line 5 planned by HEUFT was positively emphasised. This has also been proved true during running production: “It can be clearly stated with regard to the noise that this has been reduced enormously to the benefit of our employees” reports the head of department for filling and packaging technology.
A high level of functionality guaranteed
The reconfiguration of the complete section between the bottle cleaning machine and the filler by the HEUFT company has played a decisive role in the success of the complete renovation of the Paulaner line during which almost all the existing machines were replaced by new ones. It ensures a continuous supply to the filler of empty bottles which are of the correct type and free from defects and contributes to saving human resources. Mr Daebel explains: “It is necessary that broken glass, lying bottles etc. can be rejected without anyone staying in the area particularly in the first section of the container transport after the bottles leave the cleaning machine." For this a high level of functionality is required - and this has now been guaranteed with the new HEUFT equipment.