Page 38 - Food&Drink Business Magazine June 2019

PRODUCT NEWS
KEGS, CONFIDENCE
AND COMAC 2T
CUTMASTER:
NOT YOUR AVERAGE
SAUSAGE
THE GEA CutMaster is known for producing
high quality sausage,
but it can also cut and
mix filling mass for dumplings or pasta,
protein snacks containing cereals and honey or petfood.
Its leading models cut, mix and emulsify all kinds of sausage products from coarse to very fine. It is highly flexible because of its variable cutting speed including extremely high speeds of more than 160 m/s. GEA’s buffle plate builds a defined room around the fast turning knife to hold the meat as long as possible in the cutting area to receive the finest emulsion.
An option with the CutMaster is that it can also vacuum, cook or cool products, so additional equipment is not needed.
It is also suitable for a wide range of poultry, fish, confectionery, vegetarian products, processed cheese and many basic products in the food processing industry as well as in the pet food industry.
FCI GOES
WITH THE
FLOW
FLUID Components International (FCI) has released a series of air/gas flow metres that will reduce the life cycle costs of flow measurement, based on its easy installation and maintenance.
Supplied through its Australian distributor
AMS Instrumentation & Calibration, the FCI ST Series requires a single tap point into the process line to provide ease of installation.
Unlike inline or spool
piece metres, the ST Series
has an insertion-style
design, which allows it to be installed rapidly
or retracted quickly and does not require the production line to be interrupted or shut down for its maintenance.
The ST50, ST80 and ST100 maintenance is based on a ball valve/packing gland, where the ball valve closes when the part is retracted from the line.
In the series, the ST50 is a low cost solution designed for pipe diameters from 63-610mm with no moving parts, while the ST80 and ST100 include more feature-rich electronics with sensors for industrial process and plant applications, as well as a transmitter for outputs.
FCI’s ST Series all feature optional, retractable packing gland kits in low of medium pressure configuration, for lines pressurised up to 3.5 bar (g) and 34 bar (g), respectively.
COLONIAL Brewing’s Port Melbourne brewery has had “added confidence” since introducing the Comac 2T keg washer and filler in July 2018. Colonial worked with local Comac agent HBM Packaging Technologies for the machine’s installation and service.
Colonial Brewing head brewer Ashley Hazell (pictured below, left, with HBM’s Matthew Macfarlane) said the Comac 2T has almost been running on a daily basis, with 27-30
kegs on a thorough cleaning regime per hour. “Cleaning our kegs with caustic, acid & steam ensures the Kegstar ‘pool’ kegs that we use are thoroughly cleaned so we don’t need to worry about what was in them prior,” said Hazell.
“The sensors and automation on each cleaning step mean kegs that are not cleaned properly for any reason are rejected and they can be examined. The same applies to the steam sterilising and filling head.
“Because of this, we can leave less experienced alone to operate the machine without worrying about
a problem slipping through.”
Hazell further added HBM Packaging Technologies were a great learning resource for in-house maintenance of the Comac 2T.
“The only minor fault was that the keg flipper initially had a few minor problems which were a couple of cracked welds and a broken foot support which HBM repaired very promptly. This was not unexpected, given up to 200 full kegs per day slide down it, so it does take a beating!” he said.
HBM also provides a range of packaging and plastics machinery solutions, including Effytec, Vezzadini and Ocme.
TIGHT SPACES, HIGH SPEEDS
GUIDING data and media in the tightest of spaces at high speeds
is a major challenge for many users. Treotham has released igus’s micro flizz, offering a compact energy supply system.
Narrow compact spaces and fast movement in lanes, such as in storage and retrieval units, are common usage scenarios for busbar systems. But their big disadvantage is they can normally only be used for energy transmission. In order to supply energy, data, fluids and air simultaneously in horizontal and vertical directions, igus has developed the micro flizz energy supply system.
The micro flizz is an energy chain made from flexible chainflex cables for tight bend radii and an aluminium guide channel. It can be used with the new smart CF.D system which monitors the data transmission characteristics of the cable in advance and warns of a failure.
It has travel speeds up to 6 m/s and accelerations up to 4 m/s are possible. In addition to highly flexible chainflex control, data and motor cables for tight bend radii, the energy chain can also guide hoses as well as fibre optic cable with data rates of up to 10 GBit/s.
It has integrated “side wings” to hold the chain firmly in the stretched condition at all times in a special groove in the upper and lower part
of the channel.
With plastic springs on the crossbars of the e-chain, it has soft and quiet rolling.
38 | Food&Drink business | June 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au