Powerful toothed belt axis for keg transport in filling plants

• What was needed: drylin® ZLW-linear axis, iglidur ® plain bearing, drylin® linear bearing, isense technology for condition monitoring
• Requirements: The KHS system has a capacity of 700 kegs per hour and therefore required a compact, robust and powerful axis for keg handling. High availability and service life were also required.
• Sector: Beverage industry
• Success for the customer: By using a large-dimensioned drylin® ZLW toothed belt axis, it was possible to create a robust system that is valued by KHS customers for its flexibility. The linear axis also copes well with absorbing high lateral forces during keg handling.

With a wide range of filling and packaging systems, as well as systems for cleaning, labelling, pasteurisation and transport and inspection technology, for example, KHS has a high level of market penetration worldwide and is constantly developing new machine concepts.
With the Innokeg AF-C Transversal, the company has developed a genuine innovation in filling technology ready for series production.
The machine is characterised by a particularly high degree of flexibility in the inspection, cleaning and filling of kegs (Fig. 1). It is possible to switch between returnable and non-returnable kegs without conversion - and at a capacity of up to 700 kegs per hour. The prerequisite for this is the innovative machine layout: The processing stations are arranged transversely, i.e. on both sides, next to the central conveyor belt, so that the kegs are simply conveyed through the system to the filler as the last machine without having to go through the entire cleaning process or individual steps. The drylin® system uses three driven pushers per processing station (of which there are up to four) to push them sideways from the belt into this station and out again.
Unlike glass and PET bottles and cans, kegs are heavy containers with corresponding requirements in terms of handling technology. One of the challenges facing the designers of the Innokeg AF-C Transversal was therefore to develop a compact, robust and powerful axis for transverse keg handling.
This involves moving kegs weighing two times 80 kilograms over a distance of 1,820 millimetres transverse to the transport direction at a speed of 1.5 m/s and an acceleration of 2 m/s². The system must function under the hygienic conditions of beverage filling in 24/7 operation with a very high level of availability and service life.

drylin® ZLW Tensioned belt axis in conveyor technology
Those responsible for mechanical design analysed the market and examined the solutions proposed by various suppliers. In the end, the multifunctional drylin® ZLW linear axis we proposed was the winner (see pictures 2 and 3 below). It is an impressive two metres long, 41 centimetres wide, 10 centimetres high and weighs 126 kilograms and was delivered ready for installation.
A total of four guide rails, two of which are used for parallel guidance, were assembled into a compact system for KHS. This means that the three "push arms" (the centre one for pushing the kegs into the station, the two outer ones for returning them to the central conveyor belt) can be operated on a common linear axis.
In order to adapt the guide length of the slides to the high torques that occur when the kegs are pushed over, the slides are arranged on two levels. They are moved by three centrally arranged toothed belts (Fig. 4 below). The motors are housed space-saving in the extension of the deflection axis on both sides of the unit.

iglidur® plain bearings in the axis
Bearings made of iglidur® materials are used in all axes, which require no external lubricants - an important aspect for hygienic cleaning and filling. An intelligently designed and easy to dismantle locating spigot also enables the linear guide foils to be changed quickly (Fig. 5 below).

drylin® Linear bearings in the lifting stations
There are also numerous places on the Innokeg AF-C Transversal where linear bearings are used. For example, the axes of the lifting stations are fitted with drylin® stainless steel linear bearings (Fig. 6).

Condition monitoring for the plain bearing systems
In the near future, KHS is also planning to use isense technology as part of predictive maintenance, which monitors the wear of the plain bearing systems. This can increase the availability of the systems and enhance customer benefits.