Bulk butter filling machines

Description

World-leading companies such as WAL Mess- und Regelsysteme GmbH, the hidden champion of bulk butter filling machines, have usually earned their position through high technical expertise and best possible customer service. These companies expect the same from their component suppliers. WAL sets high standards for the used components of their bulk butter filling machines, which must conform to the food industry’s most stringent hygiene guidelines. In addition, they must also be watertight, as it is common practice in dairy operations to regularly wash down the machines with a hose.

Solution

To drive the infeed and outfeed conveyors, WAL therefore deploys drum motors that offer particularly high IP protection against the ingress of water. Apart from a single cable, the motor is hermetically sealed and offers highest protection – up to IP66/69plus – to withstand even the most intensive cleaning with fat solvents. Thorough cleaning at least twice a week is the general norm for packaging machines, which mostly operate 24/7. Interestingly, WAL has found another application area for the drum motors, using them also to handle the foil with which the cardboard containers are lined before the butter is pumped into the 25kg cartons. The machine feeds it from a roll and cuts it to length before it is wrapped around the filling head to be spread around the box. The foil is fed into the machine using a fully rubberized drum motor and a pressure roller that clamps the foil like an old-style typewriter.

Benefit

WAL uses stainless steel drum motors from Rulmeca, which the company supplies in various configurations that are perfectly tailored to the application: The 80 motor for unrolling the foil is fully coated with NBR rubber. The 113 motor for feeding and advancing the cartons has a pulley to attach sprockets, which are used to drive modular belts from manufacturer Unichains. The latter motor configuration features an angled cable gland that allows cable connection at a 90-degree angle, which in this design reduces the risk of cable damage. Sprockets are always used when the modular belt is too tight for full rubber coating, by the way. What makes the Rulmeca drum motors stand out is their IP66/69plus rating. The plus of this protection class means that the motors have been tested for IP66/69 protection during actual operation with the belt tensioned, while standard protection classes without a plus specify purely static tests with the motor switched off and, above all, without one-sided tension on the seal – a small but significant diàerence, since such tension can make simple seals less tight. Currently, there are no competitive solutions with comparable test standards – possibly because their design wouldn’t allow it. Rulmeca implements a simple friction seal made of high-quality PTFE. Around the sealing, the shaft has been surface-treated with a process called roller burnishing. Classic turned seals develop tiny grooves that allow liquid ingress during rotation, like a needle picking up sound from a record. This effect does not occur with Rulmeca drum motors, thereby providing greater protection against the ingress and escape of liquids and making the motors even more hygienic.