Fanning out the containers by means of the HEUFT relax

Relaxed into the future

World cup fever is rampant all over Germany. However whilst fans are sitting in front of their TV screens or in a stadium filled with excitement the employees at the Hoepfner brewery remain calm: with the HEUFT relax absolutely everything is under control.

Following two retrofitting measures in 2000 and 2005 the Hoepfner brewery planned to have a further section optimised by HEUFT SYSTEMTECHNIK GMBH. The filler section and parts of the multi-chain conveyor were to be renewed and a new control system planned for the complete section up to the combiner. Up to now the bottles had been taken from a single-lane to a multi-lane transport system by being pushed together. Loudness, bottle pressure and jams were the order of the day.

The HEUFT relax finds a remedy for this by fanning out the bottles. The conveyors controlled by the HEUFT synchron then ensure that the bottles are brought together without applying pressure. This technology does not have an equivalent on the market at present - reason enough for Hoepfner to use this on its own premises. The section between the labeller and the packer was already regulated by HEUFT in a similar manner in 2005.

The HEUFT relax was set up, corresponding conveyors were replaced by the new HEUFT conveyor system and the HEUFT synchron conveyor control system was installed all within one week. Existing drives and frequency converters remained; corresponding adaptations to the HEUFT conveyors made this possible.

The installation was considerably improved after successful commissioning. All points were dealt with in the shortest time possible and efficiency increased due to well thought-out planning and well-organised execution. Therefore it is 1:0 to the Hoepfner/HEUFT team at the time of the football world cup!