FZ-Getränke GmbH, Roßhaupten near Füssen, impresses with its high-quality full range of beverages and comprehensive services. The company produces and bottles lemonades and juices, for example. They are sold under their own logo, but also bottled for numerous partners. To ensure perfectly clean bottles, the Zimmermann family has once again purchased a bottle washer from Swiss specialist PAC Global.
It all began in 1953, when master dairyman Franz Zimmermann set up his own small lemonade factory in Roßhaupten. Lemonade was usually produced at night in the laundry room and delivered to the villages during the day. Slowly, the quantity and number of articles grew, and the technology was upgraded accordingly. hygienic and clean bottling plant expanded. In 1972, son Franz Junior, a trained beverage specialist, joins his parents' business and takes it over together with his wife Johanna in 1980. He sets the course for the future with a new bottling plant, and ten years later he builds a large warehouse.
[infotext icon]Successful with many pillars „from the Allgäu“
FZ-Getränke GmbH has been successful on the market for 66 years. The Allgäu-based company now bottles over 65,000 hectolitres a year. In addition to the non-alcoholic beverages produced and bottled in-house, the company also sells its own coffee brand „Luigi“, wines and spirits. 200 branded beverages are available for over 500 catering customers in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland[/infotext].
In 2007, Franz Zimmermann hands over the business to his two sons Franz-Karl Jr. and Christoph. Four years ago, the company invested in a new bottle filler and increased production capacity. Filling capacity of 10,000 bottles per hour, Shortly afterwards, the first robot started work on palletising and depalletising barrels together with a new KEG filling line. This was followed by a new labeller and a modern bottle washing machine.
High requirements
The decision in favour of another bottle washer from PAC Global was made very quickly, says Egger. „We were absolutely satisfied with the previous model, but due to our positive business developments we clearly needed a new machine. More than 7,000 bottles cleaned every hour. At the same time, the new machine needed to consume less energy and water and produce as little hot vapours as possible, while better extracting the unavoidable ones,“ explains Production Manager Christian Egger. He is, of course, also a member of the large Zimmermann family: the owners' cousin.
Designed for the SME sector
The company PAC Global was founded by Günther Zimmermann In 1981, it was the first manufacturer of bottle washing machines made entirely of stainless steel, which are fully insulated in the hot zones. Since then, the Swiss company, whose machines are built near Passau, has come a long way.
Today, the machines are energy-efficient and optimised to conserve resources to such an extent that they Sustainability principle fair are required. This includes perfect cleaning performance, low energy consumption, a decades-long service life, a compact design and ease of servicing.
Perfectly cleaned
FZ-Getränke Zimmermann fills its drinks not only in kegs and the increasingly popular 10-litre bag-in-box containers, which are then diluted with water to make the finished drink at the many mountain huts in the Allgäu region, for example, but primarily in Returnable glass bottles in white 0.5-litre NRW bottles, brown 0.5-litre Euro bottles and now also in brown 0.3-litre Euro bottles. These must be perfectly cleaned with as little water and energy consumption as possible.
PAC Global supplied an 8.2 metre long and only 1.7 metre wide Bottle washing machine of type „CB 15-0.5-RV_8.2 ng“ including the associated bottle transporters from the unpacker to the bottle washer and from there to the bottle inspector. Each bottle spends over 13 minutes in the machine, passing through several pre-soaks, caustic baths and seven spray zones, including fresh water cooling, so that it comes out of the machine at a temperature of around 25 °C.
There are always 2,205 bottles in the machine at any one time, so every hour 11,000 perfectly cleaned out again. Scraps and label residues are cleanly discharged, the long sides of the machine have large viewing windows for inspection and all areas are easily accessible for cleaning.
Long experience
The perfect cleaning performance of the single-end machine is the result of a system that has been tried and tested over many years. Before the bottles are immersed in the pre-soak, they are reliably emptied of residue. Due to the Long pre-soaking time the high caustic temperature of 80 °C is optimally utilised as soon as the bottles are immersed.
This is followed by an extensive dwell time for the bottles in the subsequent hot caustic zone at 84 °C. Seven spray zones with 23 stationary internal spray tubes achieve very intensive dirt removal. Practically self-cleaning spray tubes made of chrome-nickel steel with large nozzle diameters for cold water, hot water and caustic spraying (3.2 millimetres and 4.5 millimetres) are used. Thanks to the adjustability of the spray pipe distributor Precise centring of the nozzles is possible for all bottle types. The large-dimensioned sieve belt ensures Efficient label dispensing.
Low water and energy consumption
The Low total energy consumption of the machine is the result of the combination of a long pre-soak, six-stage cooling of the bottles after hot caustic spraying and fully insulated high-temperature zones. The design of the caustic zones in stainless steel results in a reduction in radiated heat of almost 50 per cent. The entire machine housing is double-walled in all hot zones (floor, ceiling, side walls and rear wall) with 50 millimetre thick special material insulation. As a result, the entire machine emits very little heat.
Significant energy savings also result from the Five-stage preheating of all bottles before immersion in the caustic dip tank and the use of a small amount of water and caustic. In addition, there is heat recuperation between the caustic II and the pre-spray hot water, compensation of the caustic carryover by automatic post-dosing of the caustic II and optimised liquid guidance including ideal chain guidance, which leads to a reduction in the electrical connected load.
Long service life, easy inspection and maintenance
PAC Global is also proud of the machines' decades-long service life, a combination of a compact, all-stainless steel design, 15 millimetre thick chain guides, extra strong main conveyor chains, bottle cell carriers made of high-strength steel and robust bottle cells. All components are easily accessible, the mechanical structure is clearly laid out, the electrical system is future-proof and the control system is decentralised.
The PAC Global principle is: Electronics as much as necessary, but not as much as possible. If an individual system fails, it can easily be replaced by a more modern component even years later. In this way, the redundancy principle, which is important for every beverage company in the bottling sector, is maintained. Large inspection windows allow quick checking of the spraying, and all bearings are easy to maintain thanks to easily accessible lubrication points.
Test run before installation
„Despite our many years of experience and the many bottle washers we have delivered to very satisfied customers, we build each bottle washer according to the Plug-and-play principle. This means that every machine is fully connected at our factory and then we carry out a test run under operating conditions. This is the only way we can hand over our systems to our customers with a clear conscience,“ emphasises PAC Global owner Günther Zimmermann. This is also confirmed by FZ-Getränke Production Manager Christian Egger and Managing Director Franz Zimmermann Jr.
„We were impressed by this machine from day one. We now work quietly, at a pleasant temperature and without steam vapours, despite full power,“ says Egger.
With just 187 millilitres of water per bottle, they achieve a perfect cleaning result with a fraction of the previous amount of water, and overall energy consumption has been greatly reduced despite the significantly higher output. „We want to continue to grow with our ‚aus'm Allgäu‘ range - this bottle washing machine and the PAC Global team are the right partners for this,“ emphasises Franz Zimmermann Jr.
[infotext icon]The medium-sized PAC Global now also plans complete filling lines for medium-sized companies in addition to bottle washing machines, for which it then acts as general contractor. Its customers are mainly breweries, but also mineral springs, AfG companies, wine press houses and, more recently, dairies in Europe, Asia and North America.The series machine programme ranges from 1,800 to 12,000 bottles per hour. No oversized systems are simply throttled back, but rather custom-built for each individual customer to suit each bottle cellar[/infotext].
