Rink: modern filling line effectively supplemented

The Austrian organic farm Kochauf GmbH works with a state-of-the-art system that can fill up to 3,000 litres per hour. He relies on the specialist Rink from Kreuztal for the unscrambler and the neck casing remover.

25 years ago, the Austrian farmer Karl Kochauf started his business in the furthest corner of Styria. Fruit for juice and nectar to process. When things were going well, he filled 200 bottles an hour by hand. Today, this has become the certified organic production company Kochauf GmbH with a state-of-the-art facility that up to 3,000 litres per hour can be bottled. To amortise this bottling line, the three Kochauf brothers Hermann (sales), Manfred (technology) and Dietmar (sales) also wash wine and juice bottles for farmers in the region, as well as processing and bottling their fruit: over one million bottles a year. They rely on the specialist Rink from Kreuztal for the unscrewing machine and the neck cover remover. „Because they are so reliable and the machines can be converted so quickly and easily,“ explains Manfred Kochauf. After all, they fill 26 different bottles from.

Contract filling and washing

The region around Gleisdorf to the east of Graz is known for Styrian pumpkin seed oil, wine and fruitThe main crops here are apples, pears, all kinds of berries, plums, apricots, peaches, elderberries, cherries and nectarines. Neighbours in Hungary and Slovenia are almost within calling distance, the farms are family-run and not overly large. „Our father started 25 years ago with apple juice, just a few thousand litres a year. Gradually, more and more neighbours, who also had fruit, came and wanted to bottle with him. So I slowly joined in with my brothers and every few years we had to buy newer, bigger machines because there were always more and more neighbours. more contract filling was realised,“ reports Manfred Kochauf.

In autumn 2015, the season had just ended and the machines were ready, the three brothers considered whether they should take the big step. They themselves had twelve organic juices on offer. They filled them into various litre bottles and 0.33-litre Vichy containers. In addition, there were the many contract orders for the neighbours in the large region, who either worked with the Raw material came or liquid fruit and fill them hygienically at the Kochaufs. „More and more winegrowers, including those in the region, came and wanted us not only to wash their returned empties, but also to remove all the neck sleeves and caps beforehand,“ he explains.

Display

They made the decision to build something big that would last for 20 or 30 years if possible. Manfred Kochauf went in search of manufacturers that matched the size of their company and had positive things to say about their colleagues. „So I travelled to the BRAU trade fair in Nuremberg in November and looked at the companies and their machines on site.“

Frequent format changes must be simple

When selecting his new machines and systems for the newly built hall, it was important that they Very flexible have to be. „We fill and wash a total of 26 different bottles in every conceivable size and format from 0.25 litre to one litre volume. During the peak season, we fill for 16 hours at a time and change the size up to 20 or even 25 times, so the changeover must be simple and fast. With the neck cover remover and also with the Rink unscrewer, we were impressed by the really clever system and the quick changeover of the stars,“ emphasises Manfred Kochauf.

These infeed and transport stars are each equipped with eight recesses for the bottles, always four with one diameter. If the bottle type is now changed, ideally you only have to loosen a few screws and pins, turn the stars a few centimetres on the axis, insert them, screw them tight and then replace the infeed screw for separation. „I've taken my two main types of 1-litre Schlegel and 0.33-litre Vichy on one star, so just twisting them is enough. But even if I have to swap the stars, for example from 0.7-litre Bordeaux to 0.33-litre Vichy, it takes me a maximum of ten minutes,“ says Kochauf with satisfaction.

Gentle unscrewing

Once the bottles have been placed on the bottle by hand, the screw caps are gently removed from the wine or juice bottles. To do this, they run into the Single unscrewer (ESR), are separated in a screw and then clamped in a star. Four special unscrewing heads developed by Rink move along with the bottles and lower themselves precisely. Each head is equipped with a feeler pin at the front: when it detects a cap, the unscrewing head closes. The cap is removed with a slight twist and lift, then blown through a tube into a collecting container. In bottles without a cap, the probe can be lowered completely, leaving the screw cap open.

„We have been producing for ten years Uncorking and unscrewing for large corporations as well as medium-sized companies and also seal the bottles after filling with our machines. In addition Customised solutions, such as opening and emptying bottles and cans or, as here with Kochaufsaft, the collar remover,“ explains Rink Managing Director Dr Michael Bäcker.

The covers come off

After a short transport section, the capless bottles travel with a neck sleeve into the second rinsing machine, the Neck cover remover (VEM). Here, six bottles at a time are gently clamped in a special device below the neck finish thread. A pointed metal mandrel moves diagonally upwards along the bottle from below. It cuts the sleeve only briefly (8 mm) and leaves the glass bottle completely undamaged. The clamping device of the bottle now moves downwards and pushes the neck sleeve off the bottle. The sleeves fall into a collecting container and the sleeveless bottles continue on to the washing machine.

Intelligent and logical machines

Up to 3,000 one-litre bottles or 5,500 third-litre bottles can be produced per hour. be processed. They are still manually mounted and removed by hand after washing or hot filling and placed in large wooden crates or put in drinks crates. The twelve different Kochauf organic juices are sold almost exclusively in hotels and the catering trade, as well as in organic food shops and home delivery services in Vienna and Graz.

„We supply our customers from small family guesthouses to five-star hotels,“ reports salesman Dietmar Kochauf. Nothing is sold directly in their home region around Gleisdorf, unless someone comes directly to the organic farm. „We leave that area to our customers from the region, who almost all bottle from us,“ smiles Manfred Kochauf. „From the very beginning, I particularly liked the Very good service liked. And that the machines are so Intelligently and logically designed are that on the one hand there is no damage to the bottles and on the other hand the format changeovers are very quick and easy,“ he adds in conclusion.

[infotext icon]In 1967 Wilhelm Rink founded his company for crate decorking machines, five years later he built the first decorking machine. Today, the family business Rink GmbH & Co. KG World market leader for cap removal machines. In 2007, the product was expanded to include capping technology[/infotext].