UHT systems – individually configured

Hotfill processes in glass or PET bottles continue to be a topical issue worldwide. In terms of process engineering, they require high-precision UHT systems that heat the product up to the desired temperature and keep it there for a predefined time.

In the shape of the VarioFlash H heating module, Krones offers a system designed specifically for handling hotfill products. The salient elements in this compactly dimensioned UHT system are the heat exchangers for temperature control and sterilisation, the deaerator and the homogeniser, and the recirculation concept for the heat-holding water, which ensures gentle, dependable product heat-up.

Depending on the characteristics of the products involved, and their content of pulp or fibres, the appropriate heat exchanger units are deployed. The modularised construction of the UHT systems permits the engineering here to be individually matched to the characteristics of the product involved. The broad spectrum of usable standard shell-and-tube heat exchangers is supplemented by a new product/product shell-and-tube heat exchanger, developed in-house, which produces maximised energy savings by heat exchange between the differently temperatured product flows in the inner and outer tubes.

The new deaerator, too, reflects the extensive expertise of Krones’ process engineering people: thanks to an innovative entry configuration for the product involved, using a swirl insert, very good deaeration values are achieved. The O2 content in the deaerated product with water-like viscosity lies in this case at under 0.5 milligrams per litre (parts per million). In the small-volume deaeration tank, significantly less product is stored, so that at a deaeration temperature of between 45 and 65 degrees Celsius less temperature-related damage will occur.

The customised VarioFlash UHT systems, with an output of five to 60 cubic metres an hour, slot seamlessly into Krones’ overall performance package, providing as it does an interface-free system concept for each and every beverage bottler.