Einbecker Brauhaus AG depends on the Eisele Inoxline
Hygienic stainless steel connections prove reliable in tradition of bock beer brewing
Eisele stainless steel push-in connectors, due to their high-quality material and craftsmanship, are the first choice for connecting pneumatic control lines in the wet areas of filling systems. The push-in connectors of series 17, which combine reliability and durability, also convinced the brewery Einbecker Brauhaus AG.
Einbecker Brauhaus AG is one of Germany’s oldest breweries; its history goes back to the year 1378. “Bock” beer gets its name from the Bavarian pronunciation “Oanpock” for the city of Einbeck, where it originated. The biggest unincorporated brewery in Lower Saxony offers numerous beer specialities under the Einbecker brand name. Since September 1997 Einbecker is now again an independent public limited company after 28 years of group affiliation. During this time the brand has developed positively and the brewery group is holding its ground on the market with a balanced mix of tradition, innovation and investments.
Technological and logistical innovation
In addition to the well-known traditional green Einbecker bottle, which is sold in crates of twenty, the shorter Steinie bottle, sold in crates of 30, is also high in demand. Einbecker completely redesigned the unwieldy crate to produce a more manageable container with significant advantages for the environment. Not only is the new design more practical for transport and storage by the consumer, but also achieves 50 % higher logistical efficiency: optimal pallet utilisation now allows stacking of 42 crates per pallet instead of the previous 28, yet still with 30 bottles per crate. The advantages in terms of handling, transport and ecology are obvious. This is made possible by use of a Steinie bottle whose diameter and height have been optimised and which can be used in its existing form by any other brewery, as well. Einbecker “Pilsener” and Einbecker “Landbier” are distributed in the new bottles and have since gained in popularity among consumers.
New filling systems and modernisation
To continue meeting the technological and logistical requirements of the market in the future, Einbecker has implemented numerous modernisation and rationalisation measures at the Einbeck plant: between 2013 and 2015 the company invested some 15.0 million euros in a second bottle filling system, which can fill 30,000 bottles per hour, modernisation of the existing bottle filling system, which has a capacity of up to 60,000 bottles, and also a new keg filling system. In the logistics area, a 3,500 square metre shipping bay with a central sorting system for returnable bottles was erected, to bundle all filling and logistics activities at the Einbeck plant.
Advanced technology for hygienic applications
All filling systems have stringent hygiene and cleanability requirements, which is why Einbecker depends on high-quality stainless steel components down to the smallest detail. Series 17 of the Eisele INOXLINE is exactly the right choice for this requirement. The push-in connectors with a release sleeve and one seal from the Waiblingen-based company, which are available in many versions, are manufactured from non-corrosive and acid-resistant stainless steel 1.4301 and are designed to meet very stringent requirements with respect to cleaning and corrosion resistance. Durable, FDA-approved seals ensure a reliable seal from -0.95 to 16 bar. The new filling systems at the Einbecker brewery are equipped with Eisele connections as standard equipment. In the older bottle filling systems, nickel-plated brass connections were still being used for some connections between the control lines and valves in the wet area, which proved to be less than ideal in the wet and aggressive environment. Constant temperature changes and the effects of acids, alkaline solutions and cleaners resulted in extreme wear and leaky connections, which then had to be replaced. Nor were the surfaces of these pneumatic connections ideal with respect to hygiene.
Stainless steel push-in connectors are permanently leak-proof
Hans Denk is the director of maintenance at Einbecker; in his search for alternative connection components about ten year ago he discovered the Eisele INOXLINE series 17 and ordered several connections for test purposes. The result convinced him: “The excellent craftsmanship of the stainless steel push-in connectors was immediately obvious. Since then we have never had any problems with these connections and the maintenance expense and machine downtimes have been reduced considerably.” As a result, all of the old connections for pneumatic control lines were successively replaced with components of the Eisele INOXLINE in the course of maintenance and repairs. Hans Denk: “We are very satisfied with the result and the new filling systems are also equipped with Eisele components as standard equipment, so we will not have any problems there.”
A suitable solution for every application
The general purpose stainless steel connectors from Eisele enable very fast connecting and disconnecting of compressed air tubes without the use of tools. Even in the case of frequent connecting and disconnecting – for maintenance purposes, for example – the patented collet prevents damage to the tube and ensures a tight seal at all times. All it takes to disconnect the tube is to press on the release sleeve. The screw-in end for mounting the push-in connector on the machine or process valve is sealed with an enclosed O-ring. Series 17 components allow the full flow rate inside the tube despite their compact design. The Eisele INOXLINE proved to be a good choice for the filling systems for the Einbecker beer specialities; in the future, premium components from Waiblingen will be involved in every single bottle of bock beer from Lower Saxony’s beer capital.
