The front tables are history

The major innovations still happen. They obey what is termed the technological ‘Zen principle’. One of these innovations is the F1 filler, a new generation of filler design at KRONES. It scores essentially in terms of three innovative features: modularised construction of the entire machine with no front table, a redesigned filling system and a completely new filling-valve actuation concept.

Starwheels replace front table

The F1 generation has been designed for volumetric fillers of the Volumetic series, used for filling PET containers. The modularised construction provides options for fitting or removing different closer modules without having to cope with a tabletop. The drive concept, which also includes any BLOC-synchronised rinser, does without a front table. The links between the rinser and the filler, and between the filler and the closer, consist of individual neck-handling starwheels. These are mounted on stainless-steel columns accommodating the individual servodrives. Each starwheel is driven separately, with the drives coupled electronically to each other via a central control system.

With the servomotors integrated in the columns, the starwheels form self-enclosed drive elements. There is no large, inaccessible bottom surface of the kind familiar from existing front tables, so this difficult cleaning job is eliminated. Nor are there any mechanical aids for force transmission, such as intermediate gears or cardan shafts that need to be covered.

The F1 filler needs almost no maintenance, is easy to clean and promises a lengthy lifetime. Beverage residues and cleaning agents can flow off unimpeded. This does, of course, entail somewhat more stringent requirements for the machine’s surroundings, for example the drainage and cleaning characteristics of the floor beneath it. One unique feature of the no-front-table concept is its human-engineering excellence: operators enjoy unimpeded access to the points involved.

Additional closer modules can be fitted

Nowadays, it is usual for bottlers to operate with different types of closure and choose to integrate several different closers into their fillers. With a conventional front table, the table top must be specially prepared to enable a second closer to be installed as a retrofit option. This is not the case with the F1. The closer interfaces permit an existing system to be expanded at will to incorporate new closer modules. KRONES has, for this purpose, built its own closer modules, which can be pre-assembled in their entirety. The base frame is identical for all screw-cap, aluminium and crown closers.

A similar approach has been adopted with the R1 rinser, which is in modularised, hygienic design and visually harmonised with the F1 filler. The rinser is likewise linked to the filler using the starwheels.

New valve with moving nozzle

In the past, at least when filling carbonated beverages, the bottle was always moved up against the filling valve by means of a lift cylinder. The F1 adopts the opposite approach. The bottle is transferred by the neck handling starwheel to the filler rigidly at the same height level, with the filling valve descending onto the bottle. The valve functions with a moving nozzle and stationary bottle suspension. The larger handling angle resulting from the minimal lift movement is beneficial to the machine’s output and dimensions.

In this design, a lift cylinder is not needed, nor is a lift cylinder cam. This means smaller mechanical forces are acting on the base frame; the machine runs much more smoothly and the lifetime of the carousel mounting is optimised. This has been rendered possible by a newly developed swirl insert, which manages, without any parts protruding into the bottle, with the corresponding spreaders. The F1 valve unit imparts a swirl to the liquid being filled and passes it directly to the inside wall of the bottle, which is metallically sealed without an elastomer seal.

Decentralised filling valve control

KRONES has come up with a third major innovation for the F1, in the shape of decentralised filling valve control. In the previous filler designs, a electronic component cabinet receives all the data, processes it and transmits the appropriate signals, so as to actuate solenoid valves that, in turn, actuate and deactivate pneumatic cylinders.

In the F1, by contrast, control is referenced to each filling valve. All pneumatic control functions, together with the associated three-way valves and the requisite electronics, are grouped together for each station in a block mounted directly at the valve. This provides a fundamentally faster response time, upgraded reproducibility and, thus, enhanced filling accuracy with simultaneously reduced air consumption.

Filling valve without any pneumatic lines

The simultaneously compact construction is also manifested in a filling valve with a reduced amount of hosing. All functional valves, the product, pressurisation gas and snifting channels are internally drilled. This is a big advantage in terms of easy cleaning, also facilitated by the electronic component cabinet being doubly protected by a cover seal featuring an axial and a radial O-ring. The special O-ring slip contour permits secure mounting and simple handling. Thanks to the compactly dimensioned, sturdy construction of the valve/electronics unit, with the electronics integrated into the stainless steel housing, an electronics engineer is not required for malfunction diagnostics.

Round tubular-shaped ring bowl

Hygienic design is the overriding theme of this volumetric F1 filler, which is especially well suited for bottling beverages in PET. Rigorous use has been made of round materials, which are particularly easy to clean and ensure that liquids drain off properly. Also, for the first time the circumferential product tank is round: a tubular-shaped ring bowl made from a pipe with a correspondingly smooth surface, thus providing optimum cleanability and hygienic design. As a tubular-shaped configuration, it possesses the ideal shape for a pressure vessel. This enables the component to be warmed through significantly more quickly in CIP/SIP processes, thus cutting non-productive times. The new tubular ring bowl is the component that crowns the F1 filler.