Food & Drink Processing & Packaging Issue 53 2024 | Seite 5

and pasteurizers – whether for new machines or as a conversion for existing systems .
At BAD MEINBERGER Dynamic Biofilm Protection reduces deposits of biofilm , limestone and fibrous material from paper labels in the spray pipes on the KHS Innoclean EE bottle washer , for example . In the past , without this system machinery often became clogged with deposits that required a considerable amount of effort to remove . “ The combination of paper and limestone in particular presented us with a real challenge ,” says Maas . “ Our colleagues often had to get to work with a chisel !”
Ultrasound not muscle power It ’ s not just the time-consuming physical labor that ’ s hard work when it comes to cleaning machine parts . In the peak season especially , with the plant running at full capacity , finding an appropriate slot for cleaning often proves something of a headache . “ Before we installed the ultrasonic converter , the level of calcification on the machine had to be checked at the latest every two months and the machine then descaled and partly dismantled in order to remove the deposits formed . This took up an entire day that had to be blocked off in the production schedule or moved to a weekend . And even if the team is basically motivated to put in a shift on a
When it comes to sustainability and resource efficiency , we ’ re one of the pioneers .
Saturday or Sunday during the peak season if this is necessary , they ’ re understandably not desperate to do this work that ’ s strenuous and unproductive ,” Maas emphasizes .
The Dynamic Biofilm Protection system , complete with two control units and twelve ultrasonic transducers , has been in operation at BAD MEINBERGER for about 18 months now . “ It was primarily our trust in KHS that prompted us to install the system ,” Mühlenweg remembers . “ And of course we were also convinced by the fact that the process has been in use for many years without any problems , even in huge shipping containers .” The reason for this is easy to comprehend : the liquid is oscillated , thus keeping the particulate matter contained in it in motion , not by a constant permanent frequency but by intermittent pulses .
Autonomous and maintenance free
In the end , the engineers ’ curiosity won them over , resulted in the mineral water bottling plant being one of the first beverage operations to use this technology .
“ This was one of the best decisions we ’ ve ever made ,” says Mühlenweg happily . “ We often filled an entire wheelbarrow with deposits in the past ; now we barely need a 20-liter bucket . And this year we haven ’ t yet had to carry out a single acid treatment . The system is completely autonomous and practically maintenance free .” Maas smiles that “ the new system is making itself noticeable here by being unnoticeable . Or , to put it another way , the best service is the service you don ’ t need .”
BAD MEINBERGER is also being supported in its striving for greater sustainability by the use of the new procedure . “ On the one hand , the Dynamic Biofilm Protection system considerably lengthens the time between cleaning operations and reduces downtime , thus enabling a significant increase in production ,” stresses Kathrin Gareis , service product manager at KHS . “ On the other , the consumption of water , heat , electricity and chemicals such as citric acid used to descale components is greatly decreased by this system . Besides the cuts in operating costs this results in , this also helps to save energy and resources – an issue which is so important to our customers .”
Potential resource savings
In this context , Mühlenweg and Maas monitor the quality of the caustic in their bottle washer extremely carefully . They use about 40 cubic meters of it which
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