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The Tönnies Group has constructed its bovine animal competence center in Badbergen, Lower Saxony. The cuts of beef are vacuum-packed in thermoforming and shrink-wrap machines, a course of that has become more efficient than ever following renovations on the site: Now, energy-saving Atlas Copco variable-speed vacuum pumps are used to create vacuum situations at two central stations.What used to be a mixed slaughterhouse has turn out to be a “bovine animal competence center”: For many years, cattle and pigs had been slaughtered and butchered on the identical time in Badbergen on behalf of different firms. In 2017, the Tönnies Group took over the location and determined to base its whole slaughtering operation in Badbergen – up until that time, this had taken place on the company’s primary website in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. In 2020, Tönnies Beef reopened the positioning after in depth conversion and renovation. The Group invested around 85 million euro in the constructing and state-of-the-art know-how at this website in a small city in northern Lower Saxony, between Oldenburg and Osnabrück. The slaughtering, butchering and finishing processes are based mostly on the latest cooling expertise, machine-based butchering and highly automated selecting and delivery lines.
Several hundred tons of meat go away the site every day and 95% of the animal – practically every little thing – is utilized. This permits Tönnies to fulfill different eating habits all over the world: While German shoppers prefer lean beef, meat with a thick layer of fat is well-liked in Scandinavia and different European countries, in accordance with the manufacturer’s website.
Efficient screw vacuum pumps present forming, low and fine vacuums
“The cuts weigh between 1.5 and 9 kilograms after butchering,” explains Waldemar Metzger, Technical Manager of Tönnies Beef GmbH & Co. KG in Badbergen. The cuts are vacuum-packed for various main prospects. For this objective, Tönnies has installed several packaging traces in the halls: Seven thermoforming curler machines and two robot-operated shrink-wrap packaging machines. Efficient Atlas Copco vacuum pumps are used in the techniques to vacuum pack the tubular/shrink luggage and thermoformed plastic trays, and to keep the meat really contemporary. They work in two stations and supply forming, low and fantastic vacuums.
The thermoforming machines equipped by vacuum station 1. There are four Atlas Copco GHS 585 VSD+ variable-speed, oil-injected screw vacuum pumps that evacuate the air up to 40 mbar (absolute), as nicely as four small boosters that lower the stress even additional to three mbar. One of the screw pumps supplies the forming vacuum for the thermoforming curler machines, which only require round one hundred to a hundred and fifty mbar for the forming process. The other vacuum pumps in this station are linked to the boosters. One of the pumps is redundant at any given time: This can be the case within the second vacuum station, which includes 5 GHS 730 VSD+ pumps that take away the air from the shrink baggage at the Cryovac lines. “The size of the cuts of meat is mechanically detected by our techniques,” explains Waldemar Metzger. “The packaging machines then mechanically insert the cuts of meat into the tubular bags, which are reduce to the proper measurement under a vacuum bell.” Under the hood, all ambient air is then evacuated in two stages till the strain is around three mbar (fine vacuum).
“With the forming vacuum – or thermoforming vacuum, as it’s additionally called – the plastic tray is fashioned by chopping the foil roll,” says the Technical Manager. After filling the shell with smaller pieces of meat, the shell is “wed” to the cover film: The device closes and seals the packaging airtight at 3 to 5 mbar using the nice vacuum. Sorting machines assign the person trays and tubular baggage to bigger packing containers, that are then used to choose custom bins for buyer orders.
Efficient speed regulation reduces vitality necessities by a third or extra
Waldemar Metzger has been working in Badbergen for 20 years and has been a part of the planning and execution levels of converting the mixed slaughterhouse to a purely beef operation from the very beginning. Smooth sailing included the choice to purchase Atlas Copco variable-speed vacuum pumps. “As far as expertise is worried, with the ability to range the speed of the GHS vacuum pumps is important to us and saves power,” stresses the Tönnies employee. “Compared to fixed-speed machines, you probably can reliably reduce down power necessities by around a 3rd – even perhaps by half, relying on the diversity issue.”
The controls on the vacuum pumps have a user-friendly plain text show, which additionally signifies the working hours and upkeep intervals. Since the Atlas Copco pumps may be connected directly to an exhaust system, it was potential to make use of air-cooled pumps. According to the manufacturer, this improves the climate of the room; it’s now not necessary to have the additional room cooling usually required when using central vacuum techniques.
The venture was implemented on website by and with Oliver Hornberg, Managing Director of Eugen Theis Vakuumtechnik in Werther. He delivered the pumps to Tönnies Beef, prepared to use – together with a four hundred m pipeline within the transformed slaughterhouse, measuring in places to a diameter of DN 300. His firm, Eugen Theis GmbH, was founded in 1984 and makes a speciality of vacuum technology. In 1999, Hornberg took over the enterprise from its founder, Eugen Theis, and 20 years later, in late 2021, sold it to Atlas Copco after he couldn’t find a successor. “Our two kids are pursuing different career paths,” he says. Hornberg himself remains Managing Director even after the corporate was offered to Atlas Copco and is wanting ahead to significant growth under the umbrella of one of many world’s largest suppliers of vacuum pumps. The firm already operates all through Germany: “From Flensburg in the north to Regensburg in the south and Halle (Saale) in the east,” he says, outlining the reach of his company: This additionally contains Badbergen within the (north)west, as he generally stops by at Tönnies Beef to hold up the machines.
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