Sustainable, flexible and efficient: the new glass filler for beer

Krones has upgraded its Modulfill HES glass filler, lending it exceptional flexibility at product and bottle changeovers, enhanced sustainability thanks to optimal media and energy consumption, and higher overall equipment effectiveness through automation and digital innovation.

Krones believes there is always room for improvement – and that belief has prompted the company to create a next-generation Modulfill HES beer filler. The development team focused especially on three things: flexibility, sustainability and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Digital solutions also deliver multiple improvements. This article presents the key features of the new filler, which the trade public had a chance to view for the first time at the BrauBeviale 2023.

More flexibility with less manual intervention

One essential factor for achieving increased flexibility in production is the number and complexity of operator interventions needed during bottle and product changeovers. As Sebastian Wittl, product manager for filling technology at Krones, explains, the right technology can not only save time but also increase process safety and reliability: “Every component that does not need to be changed out manually reduces the risk of contamination or error.” As a result, customers can afford to handle a greater variety of products and bottles without losing too much time on changeovers or jeopardizing the quality of their products. “At the filling valves especially, it’s all too easy to accidentally put your hand somewhere and contaminate the product. That’s why it’s so important that we take those risks off operators’ hands, so to speak,” adds Wittl’s teammate Tim Schorb.

An important innovation for faster container changeover is the MultiGuide Base multi-functional clamping starwheel. These starwheels handle just about every common bottle shape and size without a single handling part needing to be changed over. And now Krones is putting them to use in the new Modulfill HES. “The time savings are unbeatable,” says Tim Schorb. This technology also saves on space since there’s no need to store extra sets of handling parts.

The time savings achieved with the multi-functional clamping starwheel are unbeatable. Erwin Hächl Tim SchorbProduct manager for filling technology

The cleaning that’s done during product changeovers offers further potential for time savings. Krones’ solution here is to use automated CIP cups, a technology that until now has been reserved for larger fillers whose valves are spaced at least 103 millimeters apart. On smaller systems, operating personnel have had to manually install special sealing cups at the filling valve outlets before running a cleaning sequence. The Krones team has revamped the automatic mechanism so that it is now part of the bottle plate. As a result, it can be integrated into fillers with valves spaced just 87 or 94 millimeters apart. That, in turn, enables machines with larger pitches to be made more compact and smaller machines to be equipped with fully automated cleaning sequences.

For the first time, Krones is combining dry vacuum pumps ...
... with its redesigned Modulfill HES filling valves, thereby reducing consumption of energy, water and CO₂.
The multi-functional clamping starwheel handles most of the commonly used bottle formats with no need for manual handling parts changeover.
Hands-free: The new Modulfill HES also offers automated CIP cups for more closely spaced valves.

Reduced media and energy consumption

Minimizing oxygen pickup is essential to ensuring quality in beer filling. That means all oxygen must be purged from the bottle, the supply lines and the valves themselves prior to filling. To accomplish this, all the air is sucked out of the system, the evacuated volume is flushed with CO₂, and then that CO₂ is likewise pumped out of the system. At that point, the bottles themselves are filled with CO₂, which is then displaced by the beverage as it is filled into the bottles.

For the new Modulfill HES, Krones has changed up the pump technology and redesigned the filling valves:

Instead of the liquid ring vacuum pumps used previously, the new filler relies on dry vacuum pumps. The advantage of this pump type is that is requires almost no cooling, which reduces both water and energy consumption. And because the pumps generate an even lower vacuum pressure, they also reduce oxygen pickup in the beer.
The filling valve was optimized in terms of its flow and the filling valve functions were rearranged. Besides considerable advantages for hygiene and cleaning, the new valve also has less volume that needs to be evacuated and filled with CO₂.

According to Sebastian Wittl, the combination of the vacuum pump and the new filling valve considerably reduces consumption of energy, water and CO₂: “We’re able to achieve the same low level of oxygen pickup with less media consumption or keep media consumption steady while further reducing oxygen pickup.” In its first customer project, the concept is working just as intended: The filler has achieved the lowest oxygen pickup alongside the lowest CO₂ consumption as compared to similar fillers.

We’re able to achieve the same low level of oxygen pickup with less media consumption or keep media consumption steady while further reducing oxygen pickup. Erwin Hächl Sebastian WittlProduct manager for filling technology

The intelligent process-gas controller also lends greater transparency to the filling process. A sensor in the gas reservoir of the filler bowl measures residual oxygen as an indicator for oxygen pickup in the beer. This parameter is analyzed continuously so that customers can always keep an eye on any changes in fill quality. The process-gas controller uses the measurements as parameters for adjusting the flushing function and thus optimally balances product quality and media consumption. It automatically adjusts the flushing times and the resulting CO₂ throughput until just enough CO₂ is used to achieve the desired level of oxygen pickup.

Automation increases overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

Manual interventions are also a critical factor for improving OEE. Taking the burden off staff saves time and reduces the risk of error, contamination and resulting product losses. Automation, digital solutions and physical design changes such as the multi-functional clamping starwheel contribute substantially to these improvements.

So, too, does another digital feature – an automatic filling-pressure controller. This feature helps the staff fine tune the filler parameters after a machine stoppage. After all, it isn’t possible to prevent all unscheduled downtimes and some important conditions will change in the time it takes to get the line up and running again. For instance, the product in the filler bowl will become warmer, gas will escape from the bottles that have been pressurized with CO₂ and the filling pressure, too, will change. If filling were to proceed using the standard parameters, the beer would foam over, resulting in underfilled bottles that would have to be rejected. Until now, operating personnel have manually adjusted the filling parameters after a machine downtime. Now, the automatic controller takes care of this task, measuring the product temperature in the filler bowl and then using this information in combination with the CO₂ content of the beverage to calculate the real saturation pressure and then set the filling pressure.

At the end of the day, Krones intends to give bottlers greater insight into their own processes by way of digital technologies, says Tim Schorb: “The entire filling process is highly complex. Features that automatically regulate filling pressure or residual gas enable customers to see what exactly is happening in their line at any given time and to let the filler make any necessary adjustments.”