Sachsenmilch Leppersdorf GmbH
is one of Europe’s most modern
dairies and one of the largest investment
projects in the history of
the Theo Müller Group. Over one
billion euro has been invested in the new
development and in expansion projects
since the takeover. A further investment was
successfully concluded at the beginning of
2021. The goal was to automate the previously
manual packing of cheese wedges.
With some 2,800 employees Sachsenmilch
processes around 1.8 billion kilogrammes
of raw milk a year into a wide
range of products that, besides milk, butter,
yogurt and cheese, also includes whey
derivatives for baby food as well as bioethanol.
The food products are sold under the
brand names Sachsenmilch, Müller und
Loose, among others.
Cheese wedges vary in size
significantly
About half of the raw milk supplied is processed
into cheese and packed in packaging
variants to meet the customer demand.
Sachsenmilch’s 450 g cheese wedges,
which are machine cut from cheese wheels
of approx. 12 kg according to a defined
pattern, play an important role in this process.
The square-shaped middle cut which
produces three wedges, is always identical.
These sections can always be identified
in that they only feature two sides of rind
and not three, as is the case in the wedges
cut from the edge. The size of the middle
wedge is always the same, whereas that
of the outer wedges varies significantly.
The reason for this is as follows: although
all cheese wheels have approximately the
same weight, they vary in diameter and
height due to the maturing process. If the
diameter of the wheel is smaller, for instance,
then the edge wedge is shorter and
wider, whereas with a larger diameter the
segment is longer and thinner.
The compact and high-performance
Flexpicker with
integrated cartoner
At Sachsenmilch the cheese wedges have
until now been put into shipping cartons
manually. “This type of work has great potential
for automation. We were therefore
looking for a solution that would enable an
efficient mechanical packing of the cheese
wedges,“ recalls Katharina Rossow, Project
Engineer for Technical Projects at Sachsenmilch.
Packaging ¦ IDM
Fig. 2: Rapid action unit: a total of four Delta-3 Pickers fill the cartons according to
a nested packing scheme in three or four layers.
During the initial planning phase, it
was even considered changing the entire
cheese wedge production to mechanical
processing. “The packer, however, would
then be so big that it would exceed the
available space at the planned site”, Rossow
comments. Sachsenmilch therefore focused
on the main cheese type that accounts for
approximately two-thirds of the production.
The remaining third was to continue with
manual insertion into the trays.
“We decided in favour of a cooperation
with A+F due to their sound and reliable
technology and the positive experience from
many joint projects especially regarding the
individual customised solution and project
implementation,“ Rossow points out. The
key element of the solution is a so-called Flex-
picker with integrated cartoner. This Flexline
design combines two proven product groups
in one machine frame, both mechanically
and regarding the control. The result is first
of all a significant synergy effect in the control
– one system is all that is needed for both
tasks. Secondly, the machine boasts a very
compact design which is another bonus, and
not just for Sachsenmilch. This is because
with existing buildings there is always the
challenge of finding a machine that fits into
the available space conditions. Rossow emphasises:
“This worked out perfectly. Operation
and maintenance of the plant can be
carried out easily from all sides. The solution
simply meets all the requirements originally
set out by Sachsenmilch.“
Gripper system, sensor system
and condition monitoring
make their debut
Unlike the components of the basic machine,
the sensor system and the gripper system
for the cheese wedge product had to be developed
from scratch. “At Sachsenmilch we
were not familiar with the chosen technology,
but it quickly became our preferred solution.
And we were confident that it would do the
job,” Rossow adds.
The condition monitoring module also
made its debut at Sachsenmilch with this project
and was integrated in the Flexline packaging
machine. Condition monitoring automatically
records comprehensive data on the
production, machinery and surrounding area.
This also applies to status messages, warnings
and faults in the machine as well as to production
data. All of these data can be stored and
archived on a stand-alone industrial PC and
displayed in a dashboard that is accessible via
any current browser. The system architecture
can thus be integrated in a company network
without requiring additional hardware. Rossow:
“This tool was a particular requirement
of our maintenance department. It also gives
us the opportunity to optimize the plant performance
thanks to the accomplished transparency.
This is really very helpful.”
November/December 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com · 9
/international-dairy.com
