Düsseldorf (Germany), July 25, 2017 – Manual cleaning of mineral oil centrifuges’ disk stacks is a tedious and time consuming process, often taking more than eight hours. To streamline this task, GEA has launched GEA EffiClean, an innovative solution that cleans separator’s disk stacks in just 20 minutes inside the running machine. Moreover, the in place cleaning that EffiClean offers is both environmentally and user friendly.

Disk cleaning absolutely necessary

Mineral oil treatment is known as a dirty business. After operation and/or processing of feed products with high variation in quality, the disk stacks can become very dirty. Sticky layers of asphaltenes are built up on the inner surface of disks. The result is decreased disk gaps which limits the separation efficiency. This forces the operator to turn down the performance of the centrifuge in order to not risk damaging downstream equipment.

During manual cleaning, eight or more hours of operation are lost. To speed up the manual procedure, operators are sometimes forced to use improper cleaning techniques. This leads to a high risk of irreversible damage on the separators integral parts. Further, since particles accumulate based on a surface’s friction coefficient, worn out and damaged disk surfaces become dirty much faster.

Escaping from manual disk cleaning with GEA EffiClean

The GEA EffiClean unit contains all components, tools and accessories

GEA EffiClean allows operators to clean disks directly where the centrifuge is located, saving precious maintenance time and optimizing the reliability, availability and efficiency of the centrifuges. Mounted on an easy-to-use trolley, the equipment combines an environmentally friendly cleaning agent and a cleaning process that reflects over 100 years of experience in separation technology. Specially designed for mineral oil applications, the stainless steel unit with a footprint of only 0.5 x 0.8 m fits in narrow spaces and it’s tough enough to resist the demanding environment.

The GEA EffiClean1090 cleaning agent, exclusively sold by GEA, combines optimal cleaning with an environmentally friendly formula and offers the best compatibility with the materials used in GEA centrifuges. Sold as a concentrate, the cleaning agent is diluted with 90% water at the time of use. Only a very small amount of chemical is needed per cleaning cycle, which enables very small and easy to handle packaging sizes. For optimized user safety, the cleaning agent is connected to the cleaning unit, which automatically adds the right amount of cleaning solution during the cleaning process. The operator does not get in physical contact with the cleaning agent.

Separator disk before (left) and after (right) cleaning with GEA EffiClean

With GEA EffiClean the labor required for disk cleaning is reduced by up to 95% compared to manual cleaning. Plus, customers benefit by bringing the reliability, availability and efficiency of their GEA separators to their maximum capacity.

Düsseldorf (Germany), August 8, 2017 – GEA invites beverage industry representatives to visit Hall A3 Booth 313 at drinktec, the leading global trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry in Munich from September 11-15, 2017. GEA focuses on customer needs, including the demand of high quality products due to an absolutely reliable and safe production, flexibility in the face of demand fluctuations, improvements to internal productivity with ever lower operating costs and a sustainable ecological balance. At this years’ drinktec, GEA Service will therefore emphasize the GEA SAFEXPERT™ antibiofilm program for the beverage and dairy industry, ensuring that biofilm is no longer an issue in securing superior product quality.

Enhanced quality and productivity with GEA SAFEXPERT™

Biofilm in the production line is a constant source of product contamination and product loss. By eliminating biofilm, product contamination will not occur and product loss will be reduced significantly, resulting in consistently high product quality. During the GEA SAFEXPERT™ program, the equipment will be screened systematically regarding biofilms and bacteriological species will be identified. Any biofilms will be removed to enhance the safety and quality of the products. Due to the consistent nominal production capacity, customers will have a high return on investment.

Higher shelf life, less CIP

Since biofilm impacts product stability, GEA SAFEXPERT™ will also extend the shelf life of the products. In addition, biofilm-free production requires less CIP, thus extending production time per line and per day. GEA SAFEXPERT™ investigates the production equipment for biofilm, biofilm-forming bacteria and also the type of contaminating bacteria that usually develops from biofilm, e.g. listeria monocytogenes, salmonella, bacillus cereus, pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Contaminations identified in just a few hours

GEA investigates each line suspected of containing biofilm, according to the assessment. By using a special UV lamp for fast detection and next-generation ATP G2 analysis for verification, contaminated lines are identified in just a few hours. Affected lines are flushed with a patented enzymatic solution that cuts the biofilm open, followed by removal of the contaminating bacteria with a peracetic acid used as sterilant. After the treatment the systems are being inspected for enzymatic residues.

GEA SAFEXPERT™ Preventive Treatment Performance Contract

A GEA SAFEXPERT™ Performance Contract for preventing biofilm growth ensures that customers no longer need to worry about biofilm contamination in the plant. GEA Service will take care to implement a periodic preventive program tailored to the plant and ensuring a consistently biofilm-free process. The antibiofilm program is reviewed accordingly and a status report will be generated and forwarded to the customer. GEA SAFEXPERT™ keeps the plant and equipment at optimum performance.

GEA’s service staff at drinktec will inform customers about all further options of the service concept "GEA Service - For your continuous success" on the stand.

Düsseldorf (Germany), August 2, 2017 – It goes without saying that any efficient packaging system needs to include a labeler that can keep pace with even the highest demands. This is why GEA has undergone its labelling and printing segment a lot of further developments increasing labelling speed and accuracy.

With the new generation of its TiroLabel labelling system GEA is the only supplier to use a motor-driven positioning unit with spring-loaded pins for its top and bottom labelers. This ensures that fluctuations in air pressure have no effect on label placement. The advantages are obvious: for one, the machines run more smoothly. For another, the labels are applied to the product with care and with process reliability. This has increased labelling speeds by up to 25 percent. The new set-up has significantly improved user friendliness and made the labelers easier to maintain.

More options provide effective process

The labelers are operated via a new, separate 10” touch panel with integrated printer controller. Likewise, the printers of the labelers are now also available with an integrated touch panel. Another optional setting is “no product – no label”, which ensures that empty packs are not labelled, thus conserving resources while labelling. For operations without machine stops, a “no downtime” setting is provided with two independent top or bottom labelers, which automatically switch over during label changes to prevent downtimes caused by label changes. The “twin labeler” has been designed to carry out high-performance operations in the smallest space; two labelers that are coupled together for labelling at twice the speed.

Labeler suitable for GEA thermoformer series

GEA TiroLabel could be integrated in GEA thermoformers. The technology group offers two different packaging series for every need and performance category in the area of food, sterile medical goods and pharmaceutical products. GEA PowerPak is a highly configurable and capable packaging machine for production lines with a high throughput or frequently changing products. For small production quantities and infrequent product changes, GEA DeltaPak provides now an economical alternative as well. This packaging machine had its world premiere during interpack 2017 in Düsseldorf and simplifies taking the step from manual to automatic packaging systems. GEA DeltaPak is a compact machine for standard packs in small- to medium size batches, and it covers a wide spectrum of applications, including vacuum packages and MAP. It also runs flexible film as well as rigid film. Because flexibility is a key consideration for this type of machine, it is designed for fast and easy configuration, including die set change-over. Due to a defined basic structure, a defined range of functions and a selected equipment range, a GEA DeltaPak thermoformer adapted to the requirements of the customer can be provided quickly.

GEA has been chosen by Hanmi Pharmaceutical, one of the largest drug manufacturers in Korea, to supply manufacturing equipment for a new plant that’s currently under construction in the city of Pyeongtaek-si in the Gyeonggi province of South Korea.

GEA is providing two production lines for insulin, including centrifugal separators, fermenters, homogenizers, flow components and a significant number of aseptic valves. The multimillion euro order, received and booked as order intake in 2016, is scheduled for completion during 2017 and further reinforces the cooperative business relationship between the two companies.

One-stop-shop approach

The project represents a successful interdisciplinary collaboration within GEA itself, and with Yujin Hitec, GEA’s long-term distribution partner in the region. “Being able to offer the customer different types of equipment from a single source helped to seal the deal,” says Hoon Seo, Head of Sales at GEA in Korea.

The order from Hanmi includes equipment for two identical fermentation and media preparation lines, fully equipped with GEA VESTA® valves, for the production of a fragment of human immunoglobulin type G. “As this order is the first of its kind for GEA’s liquid pharma and biopharma groups, incorporating a large number of VESTA® type valves, this marks an historical win,” says Dr Marcus Michel, Head of APC Pharma.

“Among the customer’s requirements was a high level of technical expertise, which is one of GEA’s core competencies,” adds Hoon Seo: “The tight delivery schedule was challenging, but GEA’s technical know-how and advanced state-of-the-art equipment – particularly our centrifugal separators – is well established in the pharmaceutical industry. This, combined with our extensive experience, helped to create a strong bond with the customer.”

Additional orders for an antibiotic plant in Pyeongtaek-si are expected for this year. “We are currently negotiating further equipment orders with Hanmi Pharmaceutical, which again include a large number of VESTA® valves,” says Hoon Seo. “We’re dealing with the largest order for aseptic pharma equipment in GEA’s history. It’s a breakthrough for the company in terms of supplying superior valve technology to the biopharmaceutical sector,” Dr Marcus Michel adds. “I’m convinced that this development will encourage more customers to transition away from diaphragm valves to the philosophy of VESTA®.”