HBM speeds up the flow for Krones
HBM's digital load cells are being used to control filling machines
for soya bean oil and baby milk at Krones AG. The company uses HBM's
innovative fast intelligent transducers (FIT) which have been especially
developed for use in dynamic weighing and filling processes. Automatic
bottling plants are expensive and customers demand high volume throughput
and strict hygiene. Gravimetric bottling machinery determines the height
of fill of the bottle from its weight and, as it has no contact with the
product, is ideally suited for products such as oils where the utmost
biological safety is required. The balance cell system enables the fill
quantity to be infinitely adjusted to a high degree of accuracy, regardless
of the shape of the container or the characteristics of the product. The
load measuring cells enable the weight to be registered with great precision
yet in the shortest possible time - Krones are able to fill up to
10,000 bottles of baby milk per hour on a single carousel with 16 FIT
load cells and 38,000 bottles of soybean oil per hour in a larger plant
with 72 load cells. The complete filling process, including the opening
and closing of the filling valves, is monitored and controlled by the
FIT load cells and has enabled the standard deviation in filling weight
to be reduced from +3g to +0.4g.