PuK - Process Technology & Components 2024

Components
Drives
New filling system for reusable bottles
in Klosterbrauerei Andechs
Modern pioneer with a long tradition
Gunthart Mau
In 2019, Klosterbrauerei Andechs installed
a new line for reusable glass
bottles. This boosted the brewery’s
production capacity, while also minimizing
the use of resources. The tradition-steeped
brewery brought in
real cutting-edge, energy-efficient
technology in the form of 70 decentralized
MOVIGEAR ® performance
drive units from SEW-EURODRIVE.
On Bavaria’s “holy mountain”, above
Lake Ammer and around 45 km southwest
of Munich, you will find Andechs
monastery. It has its own agri cultural
operations – and, of course, the famous
brewery. The brewing tradition
in Andechs is cons tantly being
updated with the latest methods and
processes. Rising demand for traditional
beer means exis ting production
capacities will reach their limits at
some point. A few years ago, Klosterbrauerei
Andechs therefore came to
the decision to invest in new, cuttingedge
filling and transportation technology
to increase its production output.
“Having been in operation for
almost 30 years, the bottle-filling system
needed up grading,” explains the
head of operating technology at the
brewery. The components installed
at the time were simply no longer
state-of-the-art. Another priority was
the environmental sustainability of
the system, especially in relation to
energy consumption. He continues,
“The renovation needed to be done
very quickly. To avoid a longer period
of downtime, a new building was
constructed for the filling system.” As
a result, switching production only
took a few days. At the same time,
new storage capacity was to be created.
The old building is therefore now
used as storage for approximately
1500 pallets of empties.
Drive components for decentralized
installation
Klosterbrauerei Andechs commissioned
BMS Maschinenfabrik in
Pfatter, near Regensburg, with designing
the overall layout of the filling
line for reusable bottles in the new
building. Implementation of transport
modules in the wet and dry areas was
conducted at the same time. “When
it came to the drives, there were
several reasons why we chose SEW-
EURODRIVE,” says the head of operating
technology. “We have used the decentralized
MOVIMOT ® drives before,
and have had good experience with
this technology. SEW-EURODRIVE
assured us that we would receive
complete support in the startup of
the new technology.” The account
manager at SEW-EURODRIVE’s Drive
Technology Center South in Kirchheim/Munich
confirms: “It goes without
saying that support from Kirchheim
was guaranteed at all times.
There were lots of new aspects to
this project – for both Klosterbrauerei
Andechs and SEW-EURODRIVE. I recommended
MOVI-C ® , our latest
technology, to the customer. It was
the correct decision for both sides.”
The new filling system has been in
operation for four years now, and
the customer is completely satisfied.
The new system boosted filling capacity
from 20 000 to 24 000 bottles per
hour. At the same time, the amount
of energy needed was reduced.
Process technology for the
filling system
Fig. 1: The new bottle filler has a capacity of 24 000 bottles an hour. It communicates
directly with the higher-level controller. (all photos: SEW-EURODRIVE)
The material flow in the new filling
system is as follows: Beer crates containing
empty, used bottles are delivered
to the storage area on pallets,
where they are unloaded. BMS
opted for two Unipal 105 palletizers
for loading and unloading the crates
from the pallets. The crates are then
transported on roller conveyors to
the neighboring filling system, where
they are first checked to ensure they
are OK and that the bottles can be unloaded
automatically. Any crates that
fail this check are ejected and unpacked
manually. This might be ne-
108 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY & COMPONENTS 2024