Cheese. Almost like hand-made

Polyurethane timing belts drive Alpma machines

Worldwide, cheese is one of the oldest and most loved foods. Its manufacture is based on old and, still in our days, traditional processing methods of the initial product milk. In 1976, Alpma Alpenland Maschinenbau GmbH, established in 1947 and registered in Rott am Inn, was successful in developing the coagulator: The decisive step towards continuous, fully automatic production. Backed by a sophisticated method, the milk is transformed into coagulated cheese-making milk in this up to 85 meters long stainless steel trough, at the end of which the next initial product 'curds' is obtained. This was a technological break though, revolutionising cheese-making.

As far as the drive is concerned, Alpma strongly relies on Polyurethane timing belt technology, making use of the enormous bandwidth of the Mulco product range, BRECO^®, BRECOFLEX^® and CONTI SYNCHROFLEX^® TIMING BELTS of different shapes and profiles: from the T type standard timing belt, the high performance timing belt AT through to the ATP with enlarged bearing tooth surfaces and up a 60 % higher performance. The designers also make use of special shapes (e.g. welded on transport flights) and the almost complete and perfectly matched range of pulleys and other components, such as tension plates and bed plates.

Cheese production from one source

Cheese-makers worldwide use machines from Alpma. The Bavarian family owned company supplies machinery for milk and whey processing as well as cheese-making, with cutting equipment and packing machines. The company is subdivided in three divisions: Processing equipment, cheese-making machines and packing machines. The Processing Equipment Division is mainly covered by LTH Dresden, which has been fully integrated into Alpma since 1999.

Alpma not only manufactures individual machines but fully equips cheese-making companies all over the world: From raw milk delivery and cheese-making through to cutting and packaging: the customer only needs one source. „Cheese-making facilities of this type can easily cover the surface of several soccer fields“, explains Klaus Ruppert (MBE) (FH), Head of Production and Service at Alpma, pointing to an impressing model of such a plant.

View into the structural concept of a cheese-making plant. The coagulator at the top left produces the curds. Cutting and packaging of the final products is at the bottom right. In between are ripening and cooling chambers, salt baths and other production steps.

The world's leading manufacturer of cheese-making technology is, however, not limited to its traditional markets. „On the basis of comprehensive know-how in the soft cheese sector, we have developed interesting, future-oriented solutions for the semi-hard cheese sector“, adds Klaus Ruppert, expressly including the drive solutions from the Mulco Group, with BRECO, BRECOFLEX und CONTI SYNCHROFLEX Polyurethane timing belts as well as assembly groups, such as pulleys and accessories.

Polyurethane timing belts from the comprehensive range of the Mulco Group with its two manufacturers BRECO Antriebstechnik and Conti Tech Antriebssysteme as well as the Mulco distribution and marketing partners in Germany and Europe form an indispensable part of most of the drive and transport solutions in Alpma machines. These include Roth GmbH & Co. KG (Nuremberg and Munich), the consulting company for Alpma. The Mulco working principle "from the market for the market" focuses on first class consultancy and the philosophy of a close relationship to the customer.

Close to practical application: The Alpma Group includes a cheese-making company

Shop talk inside a STAC-RQ CIP belt stacker with a block mould inserted. A block mould has been seized by the flights set in the BRECOFLEX timing belts. From the very beginning, Alpma has developed and acted with a practical orientation. Alpma machines are used in the Group's own cheese-making company "Alpenhain", a company that has existed for more than 100 years and is located nearby.

Alpma also permanently carries out further development work in the cutting and packaging field. Increasingly higher hourly outputs at more and more precise weights and minimised offcuts incite development engineers and designers to follow unconventional paths in conjunction with classical solutions.

Herbert Tolks, the master fitter, answers the question why the company prefers Polyurethane timing belts for drives and conveying tasks as follows: „In addition to positioning accuracy, consistent lengths, abrasion resistance and low maintenance are extremely important criteria for drive concepts. Knowing that dairies and cheese-making facilities are a highly sensitive area with regard to foodstuff hygiene, resistance to acids and lyes as well as incorporation into the CIP (Cleaning in Place) cleaning systems are of great importance. Polyurethane timing belt drives not requiring lubrication are obviously our first choice“.

Also in cheese-making, the floor area is precious and expensive. Alpma has developed the CIP stacker/destacker STAC-RQ. Incorporated in the production lines, this system compiles block moulds, turning sheets and turning plates, to provide tight-fitting, space saving and stable stacks. On the inner sides of the 3.4 m high stacker, on the right and left hand side, more than 7 m long BRECOFLEX Polyurethane timing belts BFX 50 T20 are in operation. These belts come in open lengths and are accurately pre- assembled at Alpma. Stacking lugs let into the circulating timing belt pick up and deposit the moulds on the trolley on the stacking side. Once a stack is completed, it is pushed out.

BRECOFLEX timing belts are produced from abrasion resistant Polyurethane and highly resistant steel cord tension members. This combination permits dimensionally accurate and highly resistant Polyurethane timing belts, which, in addition to the transmission of high torques, also permit precise positioning and transportation.

One or the other among us may ask how the neat wedge-shaped pieces of Edam, yellow Leerdam, Appelzell or Gouda cheese that we find in the cheese racks of our supermarkets and which have almost the same weight, are made in large scale cheese production.

„The right cut to boost your appetite“

Division of the loaf of Edam cheese into two halves. A timing belt BRECOFLEX 12 AT/5 x 990 drives the swivel arm that ensures the transport of the halves to the cutting station. Cutting station of a SC 80/HS. The half loaves are cut into segments and transported to the packaging machine. Alpma has developed the latest cutting technology for its CUT machines. It precisely weighs and measures in order to cut identical pieces. After all, every gram is decisive for the profitability of a company.

Offcut that does not occur, cannot negatively affect the cost accounting of a company. Sizing the large number of different naturally ripened cheeses, from the creamy Gorgonzola, the mild Gouda through to the tangy mountain cheese, into segments of identical size and weight, is a thrilling task.

Let us take a look at the high performance segment cutter SC 80/HS and the way it is handling, for instance, the red Edam cheese loaves weighing more than 2 kilograms per piece. The machine processes more than 120 of these pieces per minute to form uniform, delicious cheese segments.

For this purpose, the loaf of cheese is moved beneath the swivelling ultra-sound blade and measured by means of an infrared system. The blade divides the loaf into two halves, which are transported by the swivel-transfer to the cutting station where they are divided into segments.

The high precision drive is ensured by the BRECOFLEX Polyurethane timing belt BFX 12 AT5 x 990.

Packaging: The eye catcher in the rack

An Alpma SAN 60 packaging machine with labelling system. Universally suitable for a large number of product shapes. Fast format change of the SAN 60. The infeed timing belt BRECOFLEX 50 T20 x 3600 can be seen with welded-on flights. The formats for the folding packaging are simply plugged on. From the left: Master fitter of packaging machines, Herbert Tolks, with Josef Sturm from the Mulco distribution and marketing partner Roth in Nuremberg. The right presentation, the packaging, makes the product 'cheese' an eye catcher in the display racks of the grocery stores. Be it soft as butter or hard, ball shaped or rectangular: For final packaging, Alpma supplies not only entry-level models but also fully automated packaging lines. The resulting folding boxes cover round (up to max. 140 mm), rectangular (H x L x W approx. max. 75 x 140 x 100 mm) or pure film wrap packaging up to max. 350 mm length x width. A performance range of approx. 3000 – 9000 packages per hour is achieved.

The SAN 60 series offers extremely short conversion times paired with flexible and fast adaptation to the most varied product sizes and shapes. Thereby, non productive phases are minimised. The most important component of this high flexibility is the "infeed timing belt", a BRECOF‎LEX 50 T20 x 3600 with welded flights. They are easily and quickly plugged on the format dependent top sections for package forming.

The close cooperation of Alpma and the Mulco Group has a long tradition. Many drive solutions in the Polyurethane timing belt technology were and are still being created in the mind and in close partnership as early as 'on the drawing board'.

Intensive consultancy by the Mulco Partner Roth, in cooperation with the two manufacturers Breco and ContiTech, guarantees the continuous further development of worldwide proven solutions in cheese-making technology in an ideal manner.

„Alpma relies on the comprehensive knowledge of the Mulco distribution and marketing partners when it comes to Polyurethane timing belts and drive components“ Dipl.-Eng. Ruppert rounds off the presentation of a very astounding company.

Garbsen, April 2009
Mulco-Europe EWIV