New options increase product flexibility of fillers

Just in time for Drinktec, GEA – one of the world’s largest suppliers of systems and components to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries, is expanding its portfolio of filling valves with new options that allow manufacturers to fill an even wider range of beverages with one valve technology.

The new generation of magnetic valves can be used for all filling platforms with a high hygiene level, in aseptic applications for dairy products, for example, as well as for ESL beverages with a longer shelf life.

Demand dynamics and economic pressures on the beverage industry are turning flexibility into one of the core competencies of manufacturers. Faster changeovers for smaller quantities are in demand in the filling sector. GEA’s filling specialists have developed a new generation of valves to ensure greater product diversity without compromising on hygiene.

“Our customers want to implement product changes smoothly with as few operations as possible to work quickly and economically. This is reflected in the further development of our filling valves,” says product manager Massimo Nascimbeni, filling and packaging, at GEA. “It was important to us to make the filling valves as flexible as possible so that producers can fill a wide variety of products with the same filling valves.”

The new generation now uses magnetic actuators with seals that require less maintenance than the usual technical solutions. A pneumatic, or optionally a servo drive, refines the lifting and lowering movements of the control and shut-off valves. This means that beverages are processed gently and very precisely, which is particularly important for viscous liquids or pressure-sensitive particles, such as fruit, cereals, nuts and seeds (up to 6x6x6mm) or fruit pulp (up to 3x20mm). 

To reduce the number of components on this new generation of filling valves that would require service and warehouse logistics, GEA saved on the number of actuators without compromising on performance. In addition, the new filling system eliminates the need for dummy bottles by ensuring an efficient sterilization position with only one magnetic joint.

The new modules in GEA’s filling valve portfolio are suitable for all platforms designed for sensitive beverages. These include aseptic liquids such as dairy products and extended shelf life (ESL) beverages, which can be clear or contain fibers. Even changeovers between the extremes of non- and highly carbonated beverages are possible without much effort.

The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.

The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.

Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.

As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.

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