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• What was needed: drylin JUM-01-30 liners (custom-made with a special surface structure)
• Requirements: For the capping units of PET filling lines, KHS was looking for particularly hygienic liners for the bearing arrangement of the linear stroke. It should be possible to rinse them during cleaning.
• Industry: Beverage bottling plants
• Success for the customer: The new drylin JUM-01-30 special bearings have a special, rough structure inside and outside, which enables them to be cleaned along with the inner and outer walls. The result is an exceptionally high level of hygiene.

A drylin JUM special bearing is used in the sealing element. It has angled troughs on the inside and a studded surface on the outside. This makes the liner easy to clean.

Problem

Hygienically flawless systems for filling beverages: With this goal, the market leader KHS adopted the bearing technology that is used in the linear stroke of bottle capping elements. The problem is that the hygienically particularly sensitive area is susceptible to germs. A conventional bearing is out of the question. The up to 36 capping units, which lift on a kind of carousel and close over 1,300 bottles per minute, were to receive a bearing solution that cleans significantly better. The usual requirements of high-performance filling systems, such as fast cycles in continuous operation, were also placed on the desired bearing arrangement. 

Solution

The sophisticated solution: A sliding element specially developed for KHS, which is not flat on the inside of the shaft, but has a fluted structure. The advantage is that during cleaning, the interior of the bearing is not left out, and hygiene standards rise. The new drylin JUM-01-30 type liners have a burl-like structure on the outside. Here, too, water can simply flow through and thus reach even the smallest dirt particle.
The bearings made of the standard iglidur J material naturally also work with incorporated lubricant to prevent product contamination by oil or grease.
And the tests prove the effectiveness of the special bearings. Due to the special surface structure on the inside and outside of the bearings, the highest hygiene requirements are met. Germ tests by KHS prove this.

In order to improve rinsability and thus hygiene during the filling process, special bearings with spiral grooves on the inside and nubs for spacing on the housing side are now used.

How it started: KHS originally used liners with vertical grooves from the igus standard product range in the capping units.