Optimizing Processes with Innovation, Hygiene and Precision

Stuttgart, March 2022 – At this year’s Anuga FoodTec (26-29 April 2022, Cologne), Coperion and Coperion K-Tron will present their efficient and complete processing solutions for the food and pet food industry at Booth F059 in Hall 10.1. Along with the ZSK Food Extruder in Hybrid Design for manufacturing various meat substitute products on a single machine, visitors can also learn about gentle and hygienic conveying as well as accurate feeding of ingredients and products within the process.

ZSK Extruder in Hybrid Design: Minimum Retrofit Costs — Maximum Flexibility
With its ZSK Food Extruder in Hybrid Design, Coperion has developed an innovative solution for manufacturing various meat substitute products based on plant proteins — Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) and High Moisture Meat Analogues (HMMA) — on the same machine. An adapter solution makes it possible to retrofit the extruder with minimum effort in a short amount of time. By turning a few screws, the ZGF Centric Food Pelletizer that cuts TVP product directly at the die plate after the process section, can be exchanged with a special cooling nozzle in no time at all for manufacturing HMMA product. Furthermore, thanks to the twin screw extruders’ self-cleaning effect and modular construction, it is possible to manufacture numerous other extrudates such as snacks and cereals on the same ZSK Extruder.

Bulk Material Handling Equipment for Hygiene, Safety and Flexibility
At Anuga FoodTec, Coperion is also presenting various products for safe and hygienic ingredient conveying. With its RotorCheck 5.0, Coperion offers manufacturers reliable contact monitoring for rotary valves. This solution detects, evaluates, and reports unwanted contact between the rotor and the housing to reliably prevent metal abrasion resulting in potential contamination of the product being conveyed. Thanks to its flexible control, the device can be modified to accommodate changed production conditions. The device’s parameters can thus be adapted to different product characteristics or varying cleaning cycles with no difficulty. Food manufacturers with high product quality and safety demands will especially benefit from this add-on solution for Coperion rotary valves.

Additionally, Coperion will display the high-quality WYK bulk material diverter valve and the industry proven WZK dual channel diverter valve — the Coperion original. The stainless steel WYK diverter valve being exhibited is a match for even the highest sanitary requirements and purity demands. It is optimally suited for conveying powders with significant hygienic requirements, such as powdered milk, lactose and infant foods. Best of all, it is CIP (Clean-In-Place) capable. With no additional disassembly or manual cleaning following wet cleaning, it is absolutely clean and free of impurities, saving time, effort and costs. No subsequent cleaning is required. Thus, the WYK diverter valve can easily be installed even at points that are poorly accessible. The valve is based upon an innovative principle of function: During bulk material conveying, the conical rotor, positioned in the conveying stream, seals the conveying lines off from each other. During CIP cleaning, the rotor is minimally pulled out of the housing and flushed by the cleaning fluid. The WYK’s pipe sealing is designed such that it permits the processing of even the finest powders. The diverter valve’s compact design and its high surface quality are further advantages. All materials in its construction fulfill EU1935/2004 food regulation and are FDA compliant.

Coperion K-Tron will also present a sanitary P10 Vacuum Sequencing Receiver that it is suited for a broad range of bulk materials and fulfills the strict hygienic requirements of the food industry. All of the P-Series models are constructed of stainless steel and feature steep cone angles for safe product discharge as well as tri-clover quick release fittings to ensure quick disassembly. The P10 receiver is especially well suited for conveying flake products and powders ranging from free-flowing to poorly flowing, and materials requiring gentle conveying.

Reliable Feeding for High-End Product Quality  
Lastly, for high-accuracy feeding of ingredients into a process, Coperion K-Tron will present its twin screw and vibratory gravimetric feeders. Because precise feeding of individual ingredients into the process during manufacturing is critical for end-product stability and quality, gravimetric feeders are especially well suited to this end. They measure the weight of the material to be fed and then continually modify feeding so that the desired set point is precisely achieved.

For this purpose, Coperion K-Tron is presenting the K-ML-D5-KT20 gravimetric twin screw feeder at Anuga FoodTec. This extremely precise loss-in-weight feeder enables accurate feeding directly into the following process. The entire feeding system is continuously weighed by the extremely accurate D5 scale, and the weight loss rate is regulated such that the desired feeding output is achieved and direct product intake into the extruder is ensured. The modular screw feeders are available with a variety of interchangeable components and screws. The feeder is equipped with the KCM-III controller, offering a variety of user-friendly functions and improved feeding accuracy, thus increasing efficiency in production processes.

With the K3 V100 vibratory feeder in a hygienic design, Coperion K-Tron presents a solution for gentle gravimetric feeding of sensitive bulk solids. The K3 line of vibratory feeders uses an innovative patent-pending drive system. Coperion K-Tron’s newest generation of loss-in-weight feeders with vibratory trays enables gentle bulk material handling, higher precision, and shorter retrofit times which in turn lead to fewer rejects, shorter downtimes, higher product quality, and markedly higher process efficiency. K3 vibratory feeders are modularly constructed and are available in both standard and easy-to-clean hygienic design.