Beverage filling systems: Bearing technology from the modular construction kit

A typical feature of Küppersbusch's procedure is that there are no prefabricated solutions or type series. Klaus Voigt, project engineer in the company: "The customer tells us the requirements - we develop a solution. " Since it's mostly about small to medium volumes and users want flexibility, this solution often consists of semi-automatic, linear filling, labelling and capping machines. During the project planning, the developers can fall back on extensive application know-how. On a separate floor of the company building, Küppersbusch uses its own production facilities for the contract filling of a wide variety of products. Jochen Küppersbusch: "That's why we know the practical requirements of our customers from our own experience. “

Bearing technology from igus® - in use for more than twenty years

The designers of Küppersbusch use various type series and versions from the igus® bearings product range, and with good reason. Klaus Voigt: "It is important to us that both the rotary and the linear bearings can be cleaned well and achieve a long service life. For hygiene reasons, they must not require any external lubricants, and depending on the application, this means parts in contact with product, the materials must be FDA-compliant. " All of these properties apply to igus® plain bearings made of high-performance polymer with incorporated lubricant.

Jochen Küppersbusch, igus sales consultants Markus Schwarz and Klaus Voigt.

In the choice of the iglide® material, the designers benefit from the steadily growing variety. Klaus Voigt: "For many years we have used the FDA-compliant solution iglide® A180. Now we mostly use the new FDA variants iglide® A181 (blue) and the FDA-compliant high-temperature bearing iglide® A500." A relatively new igus® product is used in the current system at the outlet of the rotary table for feeding the bottles. The guidance equipment for the bottles was originally made of stainless steel. To dampen the sound of bottles hitting metal, the igus tribo-tape made of iglide® B160 is used. This liner is resistant to cleaning agents and is characterized by a very good sliding / friction coefficient compared to glass.

Küppersbusch also relies on high-performance polymer bearings from the igus® modular construction kit at the valves and pumps of the filling and dosing stations. At the filling stations, the bottles are raised via drylin® T-rail guides and connected to the filler. At the centering bridges of the filling tubes, the company installs iglide® flange bearings, which are not only FDA-compliant and chemically resistant, but also have an extremely long service life. Klaus Voigt: "These bearings are heavily stressed. We have a filling machine that has done 40 million cycles and is still operating with the first shaft and the first bushing. " Users of the Küppersbusch bottling plants will profit from this again: they can get by with a minimum of service. The plants are known to the customers for this.