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Beverage filling systems: Bearing technology from the modular construction kit

igus® plain bearings in the systems of Küppersbusch GmbH

Küppersbusch GmbH in Velbert develops and manufactures customer-specific filling plants and has been using plain bearings from the igus® modular construction kit for more than twenty years. A closer look at a manufactured plant shows a wide variety of possible applications for bearing systems made of high-performance polymers in beverage technology.

Here, you can find the products used

Here you can find further interesting applications from very different areas of use:

  • To the search for applications according to branch of industry and type of use

    • Application know-how through contract filling

    A typical feature of Küppersbusch's procedure is that there are no prefabricated solutions or type series. Klaus Voigt, project engineer in the company: "The customer tells us the requirements - we develop a solution. " Since it's mostly about small to medium volumes and users want flexibility, this solution often consists of semi-automatic, linear filling, labelling and capping machines. During the project planning, the developers can fall back on extensive application know-how. On a separate floor of the company building, Küppersbusch uses its own production facilities for the contract filling of a wide variety of products. Jochen Küppersbusch: "That's why we know the practical requirements of our customers from our own experience. “

    Linear semi-automatic filling, capping and labelling machine from Küppersbusch.

    Bearing technology from igus® - in use for more than twenty years

    The designers of Küppersbusch use various type series and versions from the igus® bearings product range, and with good reason. Klaus Voigt: "It is important to us that both the rotary and the linear bearings can be cleaned well and achieve a long service life. For hygiene reasons, they must not require any external lubricants, and depending on the application, this means parts in contact with product, the materials must be FDA-compliant. " All of these properties apply to igus® plain bearings made of high-performance polymer with incorporated lubricant.

    Jochen Küppersbusch, managing partner of Küppersbusch GmbH, igus sales consultant Markus Schwarz and Klaus Voigt, project engineer at Küppersbusch.

    Jochen Küppersbusch, igus sales consultants Markus Schwarz and Klaus Voigt.

    Variety of rotary and linear bearing technology

    Using the example of a filling plant for spirits, which is currently undergoing its final test runs in Velbert before delivery, it is easy to see how many and which different plain bearings from the igus® modular construction kit are used here:

    For height and format adjustments, Küppersbusch often uses drylin® lead screws with flange nuts.

    drylin® trapezoidal threads with flange nuts
    For diverse height-adjustment mechanisms, trapezoidal threads from the drylin® product range combined with flange nuts made of high-performance polymer are used.

    Liner left and right for shaft bearing, lead screw and nut centred for the drive.

    drylin® liners and R flange bearings with lead screw
    The format adjustments are made via drylin® R flange bearings. Three igus® bearing points provide a guidance system here. Liner left and right for shaft bearing, lead screw and nut centered for the drive.

    Assembly-friendly motor attachment with alignment compensation in use: igubal clip bearings.

    igubal® clip bearing
    Clip bearings are installed on the bracket of an electric motor to ensure easy assembly and compensation of alignment.

    Optically perfect, low-friction and long-lasting: drylin® R flange bearings with aluminium adapter in combination with the matching shafts.

    drylin® R flange bearings
    On another (vertical) linear axis, Küppersbusch uses a combination of drylin® R flange bearings with aluminium adapters in which anodized aluminium shafts move.

    Plain bearings, flange bearings, tribo-tape ...

    In the choice of the iglide® material, the designers benefit from the steadily growing variety. Klaus Voigt: "For many years we have used the FDA-compliant solution iglide® A180. Now we mostly use the new FDA variants iglide® A181 (blue) and the FDA-compliant high-temperature bearing iglide® A500." A relatively new igus® product is used in the current system at the outlet of the rotary table for feeding the bottles. The guidance equipment for the bottles was originally made of stainless steel. To dampen the sound of bottles hitting metal, the igus tribo-tape made of iglide® B160 is used. This liner is resistant to cleaning agents and is characterized by a very good sliding / friction coefficient compared to glass.

    iglide tribo-tape at the outlet of the rotary table of a bottling plant.

    igus® bearings also at the valves and pumps

    Küppersbusch also relies on high-performance polymer bearings from the igus® modular construction kit at the valves and pumps of the filling and dosing stations. At the filling stations, the bottles are raised via drylin® T-rail guides and connected to the filler. At the centering bridges of the filling tubes, the company installs iglide® flange bearings, which are not only FDA-compliant and chemically resistant, but also have an extremely long service life. Klaus Voigt: "These bearings are heavily stressed. We have a filling machine that has done 40 million cycles and is still operating with the first shaft and the first bushing. " Users of the Küppersbusch bottling plants will profit from this again: they can get by with a minimum of service. The plants are known to the customers for this.

    FDA-compliant and chemically resistant: iglidur® flange bearings on the centring bridges of the filling tubes.