14 driverless transport vehicles take over
in-plant logistics (photo: Hochwald)
Hochwald mainly produces products in
carton packs in Mechernich (photo: Hochwald)
IDM ¦ Site report
The raw cream is pasteurised via a cream heater.
The pasteurised cream can then be used for further
process steps, prepared for UHT-cream or pumped to
the output.
102 valve nodes, approx. 40 tanks, three CIP systems
for automatic cleaning of the process equipment,
two homogenisers for the condensed milk, 35 MCC
groups with 103 MCC control cabinets (approx. 330
frequency converters) and 101 on-site control cabinets
are installed. The automation system from ProLeiT
works with 22 Siemens S7-1500 controllers. The total
energetic connected load is 6 MW.
Evaporator
The evaporator capacity is up to 52,000 kg/h for condensed
milk in the feed. In this operating area, 40 heat
exchangers, 160 pumps and 1,800 automatic valves are
installed, 38 km of pipes, 22 km of air hoses and 44 km
of cables have been laid.
Aseptic
The pre-produced products (milk, cream, milk mix and
condensed milk) are sterilised on six UHT lines and prepared
for filling in 12 sterile tanks. The sterile tanks,
with a combined capacity of 820,000 litres, are connected
to 17 filling machines.
All UHT lines heat indirectly and enable a heat recovery
of 85 %. The lines are connected to the sterile
tanks in a highly flexible way; the latter run on up to
three filling machines each.
In the aseptic area, 85 aseptic valve clusters are installed.
In-house logistics
14 driverless transport vehicles of the type FTF: AGV
Mini take care of the replenishment of packaging material
and supplies. The vehicles navigate freely in the filling
hall without a driver using a laser. Nine palletisers are
fed by two packaging lines each, two wrapping centres
with two film wrappers each take care of the load securing.
The overhead monorail has 50 double hangers
and conveys the full pallets from the palletising centre
to the high-bay warehouse, which has about 50,000
storage locations. The 40 m high high-bay warehouse
has 15 levels and 13 aisles, each with one crane. The
storage and retrieval capacity is 400 pallets/h.
A separate narrow-aisle warehouse offers 2,000
storage locations on six levels.
24 motor-driven shipping lanes have a capacity of
more than 300 pallets/h. An automatic depalletising
system has been installed for loading containers.
32 · September/October 2022 ¦ international-dairy.com
An electric overhead conveyor with 50 hangers
takes care of transport to and from the
high-bay warehouse (photo: Hochwald)
/international-dairy.com
