Packaging plant
Pfanner has been a regular customer of Profipack for many years. And once again, the fruit juice producer had a new project in the pipeline. It needed a new dry section and immediately contacted Profipack for a quotation.
It wasn't long before the customer received the first layout proposal. After a number of different variants of how the system could be installed in the hall and an attached quotation, the customer decided which manufacturer to place the order with. Pfanner was convinced by the quick feedback and the extremely compact design and started working on the project with Profipack.
Right from the start, the customer was impressed by the speed of assembly, the ingenious design and the good programming.
The following machines have been realised by Profipack in this project:
- Profipac packer
- Profipac unpacker
- Profitrans pack transport
- Profitrans article conveyor
Detail of the system supplied
Packer
The packer consists of the basic machine: a 2-axis gantry packer with a table width of 1200 mm. The offer includes three different format parts for the many different types of bottles. The customer already has two other sets. These have been modified to fit the Profipac.
The bottles are lifted from a bottle table and placed into the appropriate plastic crates. The packer can fill up to three crates in one stroke. It therefore achieves an output of 28,800 bottles per hour.
Transporters
In total, approximately 83 metres of bottle conveyors and 55 metres of container conveyors have been installed throughout the dry section. The conveyors are made of stainless steel and equipped with stainless steel hinged belt chains and accumulation roller chains. Tight curve radii have enabled the compact design to be achieved.
The bottle conveyors are also fitted with stainless steel slat-band chains. The system is designed with belt lubrication to ensure smooth and gentle bottle transport.
Unpacker
Similar to the packer, the unpacker consists of the same basic machine. However, the unpacker has a hold-down device for the crates. Again, there are 5 different format sets, two of which are already provided by the customer and only need to be slightly modified.
The format parts can be easily changed manually via an ejection station.
In order to achieve the highest possible output, there is a control system in front of the unpacker that checks whether the product can be unpacked. If this is not the case, the crate is manually rejected.
Crate washer
For the crate washer, Profipack turned to a well-known supplier with a reputation for high quality and good performance. They supplied a spiral washer for cleaning the unpacked crates. This washer is equipped with self-cleaning, a heating register, monitoring of the crates and automatic dirt removal. The supplier also supplied a C chute. This allows the crates to slide down and turn around during the sliding phase, so that the crates can be washed upside down.
About the client
Hermann Pfanner Getränke GmbH
For over 160 years, the family-owned company Hermann Pfanner Getränke GmbH has been inspiring people with its philosophy of doing its best to produce high-quality products from the gifts of nature. In the same way, fruit juice has been inspiring people for a long time with its taste, enjoyment and refreshment. It all began when Max Hermann Pfanner bought the "Gasthaus Hirschen" in Lauterach with its small brewery and distillery. Even then, schnapps was distilled from local fruit, especially apples and pears. Back then, no one could have imagined that the company would grow into one of the largest apple processors in Europe. Pfanner is 100% family-owned by the Pfanner, Schneider and Dietrich families, who run the company together with external management.
