Full coverage in a confined space
The Hofmühl private brewery guarantees the safety and quality of its primary packaging and products as well as the functionality and delivery capability of its filling line in Eichstätt, Germany, with a state-of-the-art empty bottle inspector. The modular HEUFT system scores particularly highly with its extremely low space requirement in view of the cramped conditions on site.
Returnable bottles with a pronounced yeast deposit which end up in the Hofmühl empties pool must be identified before refilling under all circumstances in the opinion of the plant manager Johannes Jung. The same applies to containers which still have residual lye in them even after cleaning. And also, for those that pose a risk of injury to the end consumer due to damage such as sharp-edged finish chips.
The current HACCP concept of the Upper Bavarian private brewery, founded about 500 years ago, already stipulates all of this, among other things. Accordingly, the company also wants to be at the cutting edge of technology when it comes to empty bottle inspection.
Gapless empty bottle inspection
This applies not only to the 0.5-litre Euro bottles, but also to the NRW bottles of the same capacity and to the 0.33-litre Ale and Steinie containers, which are filled there with around 20 different self-brewed beer specialities such as ‘Helles’, ‘Dunkles’, ‘Kellerbier’, ‘Weizen-Doppelbock’ or ‘Naturradler’. And the same goes to the white NRW screw-cap bottles which are used for the brewery's own Hofmühl soft drinks such as cola, tangerine and orangeade and apple spritzer among other things.
The private brewery replaced an inspection system from 2002 with the compact HEUFT InLine IIIR about three years ago in order to guarantee the safety and quality of all these primary packaging materials. It carries out a gapless inspection of all surfaces from the base, sidewalls to the finish and finds defects, contamination and foreign objects in all areas of the container amongst other things.
Space-saving installation
Hofmühl had previously contacted several suppliers. However only a very few were able to cope with the cramped conditions on site. The small amount of space required by the HEUFT entry-level empty bottle inspector was ultimately just as convincing as the detection accuracy of the modular system: the HEUFT InLine II IR easily fitted into the only 1.75 metres short installation gap of the Hofmühl line where up to 10,000 refillable bottles per hour are filled due to its extremely compact dimensions.
It only needs an additional housing for sidewall inspection in order to carry out a full inspection of all container areas from the base to the finish in such performance areas. This even works without any attachment at an area of just one square metre during an even lower line speed! The system was brought in through an existing window opening. The supplied HEUFT conveyor transporters were designed as a 180-degree loop in order to make optimum use of the limited space between the washing machine and the filler. Modules for the infeed inspection and thread blower from HEUFT are also located there.
Upgradeable product safety
The HEUFT speedy is accommodated behind the HEUFT InLine II IR. It controls the conveyors in this area for the continuous supply of the inspector and filler. The HEUFT fluid is located directly in front of this and uses high-frequency technology for the detection of bottles containing residual lye. The HEUFT flip rejection system removes it from the production flow just as reliably as it does empty containers with chips at the finish, contamination and foreign objects at the base and defects on the walls, which are detected by means of the latest optics and intelligent image processing. A rejection verification provides additional protection.
The private brewery Hofmühl sees the residual liquid detection system and the base and finish inspection system as particular highlights of the equipment. The fact that the camera technology can also be upgraded later with systems from the HEUFT modular construction kit and can thus be kept up-to-date in the long term is a further advantage which not only saves money but also makes life easier for the employees on the Hofmühl line. They can continue to work with the familiar system even if the state-of-the-art advances.
A high degree of user-friendliness
HEUFT NaVi, the self-explanatory user guidance, helps them to operate the highly automated system reliably and competently. It contributes effectively to avoiding mistakes when changing over to a different bottle type or format in particular.
Another advantage is the significantly reduced number of good bottles that are incorrectly rejected. And this is without the risk of a container that is actually contaminated with residual lye, yeast deposits and foreign bodies or is damaged remaining undetected and being refilled.
