Residue-free emptying with the Greif-Velox BVP: Reducing cleaning times by 80 percent

The challenge: frequent product changes

Frequent product changeovers during filling operations present food and chemical powder manufacturers with unique cleaning challenges: the containers must be completely emptied and all residue removed with each new process in order to prevent cross-contamination. The consequence is precious time is wasted on labor intensive cleaning, which usually takes several hours. Every speck of product residue must be manually removed from every last crevice, which presents a particular challenge in the case of highly adhesive substances with high viscosity. 

Reduction of cleaning times from 30 to 5 minutes

Reagens Deutschland GmbH, a producer of PVC stabilizers, had this exact problem and wanted to modernize its two manual systems. The company used them to fill products such as micronized waxes and wax mixtures, among other things. “Product changeovers in the system are necessary several times a day, so downtime for cleaning is a critical factor in our production process,” says Heiko Sievern, Technical Director at Reagens. For this reason, the company opted for the BVP gross vacuum packer from Greif-Velox. The company was able to reduce cleaning times by up to 80%, from the original 30 minutes to 5 minutes, thanks to the innovative, residue-free emptying process with a new container flushing system. In part thanks to an innovative air flushing system and a conveyor belt for removing product residue, significantly less residual product is left in the container than is standard in the industry. In the case of Reagens, only 5 grams was left in the packer, exceeding its goal of 20 grams. This is equivalent to a residual product emptying rate of more than 95%.

Higher productivity through an improved cleaning routine

“We could hardly believe our eyes,” says Heiko Sievern. “After the cleaning program had been run for the first time, we opened up the filling chamber and saw ... nothing. No product residue. The packer had been completely emptied.” Although the company still uses a manual cleaning routine, the new process has made it considerably easier for the employees. All areas of the machine that have to be accessible for cleaning and maintenance are easy to access, despite the machine's compact design. User-friendliness has been optimized right down to the smallest detail, as well. In place of the usual screw connections on the base of the pneumatic packer, the Greif-Velox system has a pneumatic opening unit that makes it easier for operators to perform a visual inspection after running the packer empty.

Residue-free emptying in combination with a full-line system

In addition to reduced cleaning times, there are also other possibilities for increasing production output with the BVP from Greif-Velox – for instance by combining individual components, such as palletizing robots or conveyor equipment to create a high-performance full-line system tailored to the specific requirements. This gives our customer additional production capacity and saves on labor.