60,000 bottles per hour

Every day, millions of glass bottles, cans and PET containers pass through a Krones plant. As a system supplier, Krones AG equips breweries, beverage filling companies and food producers all over the world with stand-alone machines and complete production facilities.

Whether it is beer, water, milk and dairy products, soft drinks, vegan milk alternatives, juices or ketchup: when beverages and food are made from valuable raw materials, a number of steps are necessary before they leave the production floor in glass bottles, cans or PET bottles. For the beverage and food industry, Krones designs and manufactures complete lines that cover each and every process step in production – from manufacturing the products and containers to filling and packaging, right up to material flow and container recycling.

From hot air for blowing out PET bottles through water and steam in potable water quality for the process chain to chemicals such as alkalis for cleaning: a wide range of fluids are used in plants supplied by Krones. Equally diverse and challenging are the requirements they place on hose lines. “A characteristic of our collaboration with Krones is that special solutions are standard. That is sometimes very challenging but we take pleasure in these challenges,” reports HANSA‑FLEX customer adviser Christian Stühler. Metal hoses, for example, not only cover wide temperature ranges and withstand negative pressures; their stainless steel versions are also resistant to corrosive media. Special industrial hoses manufactured from EPDM rubber are particularly suitable for the beverage and food industry because they are food-safe, odourless and toxin-free. 

The Regensburg branch is responsible for hose manufacture and is supported by the industrial hose centre in Geisenfeld and the metal hose production area in Boffzen. “The team on site and the various branches really make a fantastic job of these highly challenging hose lines,” says Stühler, appreciating that they not only produce several thousand hose lines per year with the highest precision but also provide additional services. These include the cleaning and dust-proof packaging of the hose lines and the perforation of certain hose types. The latter prevents hot, gaseous media collecting as liquid between the inner core and the hose mantle. Particularly practical: the hose lines are supplied as requested by the customer in stackable Schäfer transport boxes, which speeds up incoming goods processing at Krones – avoiding time-consuming repacking, and allows HANSA‑FLEX products to be taken directly into the stockroom.

Krones has its own system for the hose line connections, which combines a reliable connection and quick, servicing-friendly installation. HANSA‑FLEX has these customer-specific fittings manufactured in a range of nominal diameters out of stainless steel, a material that meets the highest hygiene standards, is corrosion resistant and easy to clean. The technical drawings for the fittings and the orders are sent via a digital supplier portal. Filling 60,000 glass bottles per hour on a single production line is nothing unusual for a beverage filling company. The reliability of all the installed components in the complex plant must also be correspondingly high. In order to be able to process orders quickly, our branches continuously keep warehouse stocks of the stainless steel fittings in all the nominal diameters produced exclusively for Krones. The hose lines are identified with a durable laser-engraved marking on their fittings. The marking contains Krones’ own article number, date of manufacture and supplier number.

Of course, in addition to hose lines for special fluid applications, there are also some traditional hydraulics activities going on at Krones. As with practically every machine and plant engineering company, the production floor at the Krones headquarters in Neutraubling has numerous hydraulically driven systems. HANSA‑FLEX Industrial Service performs the visual and functional inspections at least every 12 months in accordance with DGUV requirements. The online-portal My.HANSA‑FLEX is particularly helpful for this work. All the hydraulic hose line data including the associated X-CODES are stored on this system. The maintenance personnel can see at a glance which specific hose lines need to be replaced and when. If a hose line in a production facility needs an unscheduled replacement immediately, the mobile Rapid Hydraulic Service is ready to spring into action. The service vehicles have a mobile workshop and can perform many tasks directly on site, which saves a lot of time. Any stoppage of production is therefore kept to a minimum.

This long-term cooperation with Krones does not end at national borders. HANSA‑FLEX also provides the same service to other national subsidiaries, including those in the USA, China and Brazil. The team around Stühler is proud to work for an innovation-driven customer such as Krones: “We are always happy when we are able to help our customers with individualised solutions that allow them to further improve their products and services,” sums up Stühler.