Krones (1800 334 653) has introduced a pre-dosing twin-flow system for fruit juices in order to maintain the integrity of the fruit chunks, fibres or pulp by filling them as gently as possible. The FlexiFruit separates the juice from the fruit particle content, both in the process engineering for thermal treatment and in the filling technology downstream. The goal of the filling process is to run hot pre-dosing into the containers of a fruit-fibre or fruit-chunk mixture with a fruit content of around 50 per cent in chunks measuring up to 1cm3 in size, plus 50 per cent juice, before the actual free-jet hot-filler is reached. Up to now, piston fillers have mostly been used for this purpose. Krones says that the trouble is that they are not cippable, or not completely.
Post-dripping can impair the accuracy of the dosing function, however, Krones claims this simple, hygienic system doesn’t drip after dosing as a result of the diaphragm valves, which also minimise the damage rate.
One of the system’s major advantages is that the dosing filler itself does not need to possess an additional measuring instrument. The entire fill quantity is measured in the downstream weighing-cell filler, where the juice without any fruit cells is bottled. High priority has also been given to ensure operator-friendly maintenance.
