Krones unveils buffer storage system

The Accutower has been designed to operates withno back-up pressure at all and its fully automatic mode kicks in only when it's really necessary. Likewise, when all the machines in a line are functioning normally, the containers pass through equipment by the shortest route.

However, if a malfunction occurs, however, the system opens up and creates an appropriate buffer length to prevent any damage to the packaging and its contents.

Krones​ says it will exhibiting the Accutower at Interpack 2005, where the equipment will be making its public debut.

Buffer zones are crucial if a bottling line is to become an organic system, able toRemain fluid and to respond promptly to malfunctions at individual units without the entire linehaving to be halted. The section just downstream of a cooler or pasteuriser is particularlycritical, for instance.

This type of equipment always has to discharge the containers, toensure that the product is not damaged by longer dwell times. For a line's overallefficiency, however, it is just as important to bridge forced interruptions - for example between the filler and the labeller, or between the packer and the palletiser.

Buffer zones constitute a dilemma: on the one hand, they are required to be ableto accommodate as many containers as humanly possible in a short space of time, but on theother hand they must take up as little precious factory floor space as possible.

Krones says it has the Accutower around this problem, providing a system that exploitsvertical storage. To do this the containers are stored in a spiral configuration. As soon as thedownstream machine starts up again, the buffer can be emptied once more at any time.

Designed with a variable buffer length, the basicsystem comprises a coaxial double spiral, with an infeed and discharge conveyor trackthat, when interrupted by a transfer carriage, defines the length of the storage section. Thedifferential speed from the infeed and discharge conveyors determines the position ofthe transfer carriage and thus the storage capacity that can be used for buffering.

A totally innovative chain system, based on rolling friction, ensures energy-economicaloperation of the entire machine, as well as product-friendly handling. Different chain coatingscan be used for conveying an enormous variety of disparate products, including packs,containers and cartons.

The system is based on a machine design conceived on the modularised principle,enabling the buffer system to be responsively altered in terms of height and footprint.Likewise, the base frame has been constructed for high modularity and for convenient transport instandard-size containers.The equipment can be viewed at Hall 16, Stand B37 / D38, when Interpack opens its doors, 21-27 April in Dusseldorf, Germany.