One-way glass line for the Voelkel natural food juicery

Organic juice market leader Voelkel from Pevestorf proves that sometimes, for practical reasons, one-way glass bottling makes sense even for organic products. The supplier of the complex line is the Slovenian specialist Vipoll, which manufactures the rinser, filler, capper and conveyors itself.

„Our products have been developing excellently for years. It is therefore important to us that we not only receive excellent quality from the suppliers of our fruit and juices, but also that our machines and systems operate at the highest possible technical level. This new one-way line was not only built and installed exactly as we imagined by the companies involved under the management of Vipoll, but everyone was extremely keen to provide us with the best possible solution. The co-operation with the Vipoll team was simply excellent,“ says plant manager Jacob Voelkel with satisfaction. But it was a long road to get there.

Ecological right from the start

In the 1920s, company founders Margret and Karl Voelkel settled in the centre of today's Elbtalaue biosphere reserve. They planted fruit trees and bushes as well as strawberries and cultivated their garden according to anthroposophical aspects. They were among the pioneers of organic farming and laid the foundations for the family business almost 100 years ago with the Demeter concept. From the mid-1940s onwards, the second generation of Harm Voelkel developed the company into a national household name.

He continued to pursue the idea of original juice production in a straightforward manner and processed fresh wild fruits into natural, flavoursome juices. The breakthrough to ultra-modern organic juice pressing plant the company has experienced its third generation under Stefan Voelkel. He has been at the helm of the family business since the early 1980s and is passionate about developing new juices. Together with his four sons, who all hold various management positions in the company, the company, which is now owned by a foundation, offers more than 180 organic fruit and vegetable juices and soft drinks in Demeter and organic quality.

Disposable for organic products

The 160 employees process around 29,000 tonnes of raw materials per year. The largest employer in the region has a storage capacity of over twelve million litres. Three bottling lines (Returnable glass, non-returnable glass and cardboard), almost 100 million containers filled: over 80 per cent of the 45 million litres in glass bottles, ten per cent of which are disposable. This makes perfect sense for syrups, fruit sauces and to-go products, for example. „Our fresh juice in non-returnable glass is new, and we needed a new line for it. Just like us, Vipoll is a family business that puts its heart and soul into its products,“ emphasises Jacob Voelkel. He has learnt the production and marketing of fruit juice from scratch and knows exactly which machines he needs.

„We had a 30 per cent increase in soft drinks and all other segments, especially green juices, have been developing very well for years. This is why we have put a new non-returnable glass line into operation, which is used specifically for fresh juice,“ explains Jacob Voelkel (31), manager of the family business of the same name in Pevestorf an der Elbe.

Production around the clock

The new non-returnable glass line fills up to 16,000 bottles per hour, processing nine different bottle volumes from 100 ml to 750 ml with three different closures (28 mm aluminium with and without spout and 38 mm twist-off). As general contractor, Vipoll has realised the Complete system with dry and wet section realised and new and existing machines integrated. New glass clearing and palletising robots, filling block with rinser, filler and capper, recooler, labelling, inspection and packaging machines, vertical binders for twin packs and the container, pack and pallet transport system were installed during ongoing production.

The connection of the container conveyors to both the new and the existing palletising system ensures Additional flexibility. Packs from two different production systems are processed simultaneously on the robot palletising system. „I got to know and appreciate Vipoll during the tendering and project planning phase,“ emphasises Jacob Voelkel.

Technical highlights

The new glass bottles are transported on hygienically optimised stainless steel container conveyors in bulk or in a single lane to the machines, e.g. to the rinser-filler-capper block. „Visitron“ conveyed. All conveyors are controlled at the correct speed for each bottle and pack size. Current system parameters are digitised in accordance with the „Weihenstephan Standard“ and used for production data acquisition.

The rinser is built according to microbiological aspects without hoses and completely made of stainless steel and has 40 gripper/spray heads that do not need to be changed for the different bottle sizes. Two different media, such as a disinfectant and sterile water, can be used separately. With the Hot filling the spray zones can be used for bottle disinfection on the inside and graduated bottle preheating to over 90°C from the outside.

The Visitron filler is designed for filling CO₂The dispenser is suitable for both still and non-carbonated (counter-pressure filler), cold and hot drinks. The simple operation via a touchscreen offers Wide range of setting options for production and cleaning operations. The filler is made of microbiological stainless steel with rounded and angled surfaces. Maintenance-friendly servomotors are standard in the modern drive concept. A special Vipoll design ensures separate paths for pre-tensioning and venting/vacuum.

Filling CO₂-containing beverages

The VKR-ES-DNH filling valve is made from modular segments. On each valve, a Pneumatic valve unit for precise, very fast functional sequences and Precise fillings. The filling valves are installed on the outside of the gas duct for easy maintenance. The filling process begins with evacuation, which can be repeated. The bottle is pressurised with inert gas, the air from the container escapes into the vacuum channel and then into the atmosphere. There is no risk to the product. The bottle is then pressurised with inert gas. Once the pressure has been equalised, the filling needle opens and the product flows through a special orientation part in the lower section of the filling valve, which improves the filling process. As soon as the product reaches the end of the return air tube, the filling process is „clocked“ and the container is filled to the preset level. This function makes it easy to change the filling level when changing products or containers without having to replace the return air tube, as well as to correct the filling level during ongoing production.

Hot filling

The functional modification of the gas channels enables a hot filling process of the highest quality. The lifting cylinder presses the bottle gas-tight. The filler can fill with slight overpressure or without pressure, whereby the Individually selectable refill phases bottles can be filled to the brim or to any filling height. The machine is equipped with a temperature-controlled product return system. If the filler stops or a preset time is exceeded, the product is fed from the filler past the filling valve into an integrated tank and pumped from there to the product treatment feed tank. This ensures that no product remains at the filling valve, that the filling temperature does not fall below the set temperature and that product-carrying parts „remain at temperature“.

For each item (product and container), the duration of the individual phases is preselected via a touchscreen and saved as a „recipe“ in the central control unit. Future requirements can be easily met. The Recipe management guarantees the reproducibility of the data. Ten capping heads ensure that the MCA screw caps are applied after filling. The automatically adjustable sorting unit and the open cap feed chute transport the caps correctly through the sterilisation section to the capping head. The feed chute and capping elements are cleaned with water and disinfectant. The mechanical cap conveyor system achieves the best microbiological values thanks to integrated foam cleaning.