Krones Viscofill at the Schwarzwaldmilch Dairy

“No need to rush things, slow and steady wins the race”. It’s seven o’clock in the morning in Freiburg. A hall door swings open, a cheery Stefan Protz comes through – and as soon as you’ve heard his chirpy greeting you just instinctively know: it’s going to be a wonderful day. 

As the Plant Manager, Stefan Protz is used to getting up early. Because when other people are still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, the guys at Schwarzwaldmilch have long since been busily at work: in the production hall, there are six lines crammed in side by side, filling jars, tubs, cartons and gastropacks in parallel. There’s hardly any unused space to be found in the hall. Where one line ends and the next one begins is not easy to discern, even from the visitors’ gallery. For the unpractised eye, at least; the production staff, by contrast, know their way about blindfolded. With unerring purpose, they manoeuvre their way through the hall teeming with machines, past pallets, fork-lift trucks, conveyors. Wherever you look: everybody is busy but not in a flurry – trained to their fingertips.

As is Andreas Haberstroh. The dairy master sees that everything is ok at the new returnable-glass line. Fast as lightning, his fingers tap briskly through the touch-screen menu at the filler, so he can check the displays. The practised way he does this looks as if he’s known the machine for years. In fact though, like the rest of the line, it was installed only a few weeks ago. 

Five products, three formats, one filler 
The line was planned by Krones. As was the Viscofill SC filler, its heart. This piston-based dosing unit is the youngest member in Krones’ filler family and has been developed specifically for use in both food and beverage plants. Its specialised capabilities include dairy products, and foodstuffs and beverages that are highly viscous or thread-forming, or contain large chunks. In order to meet the hygiene requirements posed for dairies, the machine’s drive and food areas have been hermetically sealed from each other. The filler cleans itself automatically at change-overs or at the end of a production run, without any interventions from outside.  

After Adolf Darbo AG, Schwarzwaldmilch is the second company in the world to have invested in this new technology. What tipped the scales in favour of the Viscofill was this machine’s ability to handle a broad range of foods and beverages, since the Schwarzwaldmilch dairy fills five different products in returnable-glass containers: milk, natural yoghurt, fruit yoghurt, cocoa and cream. And all of this into three disparate formats. “We were looking specifically for a manufacturer who’d be able to cover all of these stipulations with a single filler. Most of them, you see, are coming up against their limits here”, explains Andreas Haberstroh. And the fact that space was at a premium did not make the job any easier: another filler, which was also short-listed, would quite simply not have fitted into the hall.

Viscofill: a tried-and-tested principle with a few invaluable little extras
Viscofill works with a piston that provides active product feed, with the filling process being divided into two steps: first of all, the correct quantity of product is dosed, in that the piston – by moving up – sucks the product into the dosing cylinder. The next step then constitutes the actual filling operation: the piston descends to its original position and discharges the product into the waiting container. Piston-dosing has been a tried-and-tested method for filling foods and beverages. The Krones Viscofill upgrades this classical filling principle to a new technical level: with a hygienic machine design, ingenious dosing functions and automated cleaning sequences.

Installed “on the fly”  
As the production hall with its six lines had come up against the limits of its capacities, it was impossible to create additional room for the Viscofill line. Instead, it had to be tailor-fitted into the space of its predecessor, which was more than getting on in years. And so the layout had to be quite literally planned down to the very last millimetre: two sides were delimited by the walls of the hall and passageways while directly in front and behind the space available for the new line the two neighbouring lines were positioned. 

The time schedule turned out to be similarly constrained. Since the other production lines handle tubs and cartons, there was no option for temporarily relocating glass filling to another line. Which meant: dismantling of the old and installation of the new line had to be accomplished “on the fly”. “A week’s lost production, that was the maximum we could accept”, says Andreas Haberstroh, and adds appreciatively: “Ingressing the new line under these circumstances was a downright back-breaking job.” 

Anticipatory vote of confidence for the prototype
When considering these preconditions – little space and even less time – it must be regarded as a huge vote of anticipatory confidence in Krones as vendor that the Schwarzwaldmilch dairy nonetheless opted for the Viscofill. After all, the filler still had prototype status. “There was a certain amount of risk involved, for sure”, admits Plant Manager Stefan Protz. As far as Andreas Haberstroh is concerned, this vote of confidence was rewarded in full: “The new filler’s running characteristics are smoother, and it also provides us with enhanced product reliability. And quite generally the Viscofill is simply more fun: where we used to have to do a great many things by hand, today we just call up the menu and select the parameters we need.” And precisely in view of this simpler handling, he continues, the machine had also been very well accepted by the production staff right from the start.

What was important for the project’s smooth progress was above all the close cooperation of the two companies. It’s true, the line know-how and the engineering involved came from Krones; but the team from Schwarzwaldmilch played a decisive role in fine-tuning the Viscofill. After all, this mid-tier company has been at home in the dairy business ever since the 1930s, which means it has a substantial fund of relevant experience to draw on. So it’s hardly surprising that Krones was more than pleased to rely on its customer’s expertise when it came to technical details. And Stefan Protz, in turn, found it particularly gratifying that the dairy’s own input, its expectations and ideas were directly incorporated in the development work: “I’m sure Krones learned a few things from us about the dairy industry, which will come in handy in future projects.” 

Knowing where it comes from 
By investing in a new glass line, Schwarzwaldmilch has sent out a crystal-clear message not least for its own product structure. “Glass is an important packaging material for us, one that sets us distinctively apart from our competitors”, emphasises Maren Zeidler, Head of Communications and PR. “And this applies most especially to our organic line of products, which we are the only vendor to offer in our typical brown bottles.” 

In answer to the question of whether milk from the Black Forest actually tastes different, there is in Andreas Haberstroh’s mind only one correct answer: “Most definitely: it simply tastes better!” he announces with audible professional pride. And Maren Zeidler explains: “It’s the origins that make the difference. We know our farmers and what they’re feeding to their cows. You can definitely taste it.” And with these words, Maren Zeidler is voicing precisely what it is that the people from this region appreciate about “their” milk from the Black Forest. Although the company delivers right up to the far north of Germany and as far as lactose-free fresh milk is concerned even leads the national market – its most important sales market is still where the dairy has its original roots. By opting for Schwarzwaldmilch products, consumers quite deliberately put “a bit of home” into their shopping baskets. Many of them have grown up with the company’s products and stayed loyal to the dairy over decades. The best example here is “Schwarzwälder Schoki”, a cocoa drink that awakens sweet dreams of childhood and makes adults’ eyes light up as well: “When Schoki is mentioned, everybody is reminded of his or her schooldays”, explains Andreas Haberstroh, “every pupil from our region without exception grew up with Schoki.” 

Fit for the future with traditional values
Precious memories, which are skillfully nurtured at company headquarters in Freiburg. In 2010, the company re-invented itself from scratch. But the traditional products are not only being preserved; they even are a constituent part of the current brand focus, which prioritises regional origins and seasonal products. Last year’s business figures are vivid proof that consumers do appreciate these traditional values: Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH finished 2013 with record sales of around 180 million. “We’ve done a lot of work in recent years on our brand and our products”, says Maren Zeidler, “and now we’re reaping the benefits.”

But resting on their laurels is completely out of the question for the Schwarzwaldmilch dairy. “We have plenty of plans”, emphasises Stefan Protz, “in 2014 alone we are implementing 17 major projects.” This will gladden the customers’ hearts as well. Because for them, the company’s healthy growth means above all one thing: the supply of the “Schoki” cocoa is assured for the future as well. And the best thing about it is this: the Viscofill from Krones is privileged to make its own contribution. 

Source: Krones