New filling technology standards for milk processing

In terms of the quantity of milk processed - 2.2 billion litres of raw milk a year – and with 35 per cent share of Great Britain’s fresh milk market, Arla Foods UK, Leeds, is the UK’s largest supplier of fresh milk.
Together with Arla Foods, Krones developed a weigh filler to suit the specific requirements of the dairy industry. When it came to choosing a supplier to deliver the filling hall for the greenfield dairy at Stourton, Arla Foods wanted to work with a single-source vendor to avoid complicated interfaces. Krones provided the solution.
Arla ordered four lines from Krones, one for each of the one-pint (0.568 l), two-pint (1.136 l), four-pint (2.27 l) and six-pint (3.408 l) HDPE bottles. Arla Foods for the first time has labelled the bottles with wrap-around labels with Contiroll labellers upstream of the filler. Checkmat inspectors examine the closures produced in-house. Prior to filling, the bottles are again blown out with sterile air, which is then extracted by vacuum.
The newly developed VPGW weigh filler features a new valve design, a new bowl design, a new weighing cell table and an innovative front table with a collecting channel. The weighing cell table is an open construction with a sloping surface. Transparent doors, providing a clear view of the components’ status, surround the entire weigh filler. The enclosure forms a large cleanroom pressurised with HEPA filters. This newly developed weigh filler formed the basis of several lines for filling dairy products in PET or HDPE bottles ordered from Krones by other customers.
Traceability code, the use of induction for heating up the protective seal in the closure, subsequent inspection by a Checkmat and the marking of leaking bottles round off the line. A Roof Divider linear distributor guides the bottles to two packers and rejects any incorrect bottles to a third conveyor.