New version up Trelleborg "absolutely pure" seals for Drinktec

Trelleborg, Sweden – At the Drinktec 2017 trade show, 11-15 Sept in Munich, Germany, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions will focus on technologies that enable manufacturers to keep tastes and flavours “absolutely pure”.

Presentations will include sealing systems and materials, designed to ensure the safe, reliable and hygienic filling and packaging of drinks and dairy products at the event taking place.

According to Trelleborg, the decisive factor for the filling of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks or the packaging of dairy products, such as yoghurt or cream, is that the plant and equipment has safe, reliable and hygienic sealing systems.

This, it said, requires high-quality engineering, and working with customers from initial design via the prototype to a complete solution including custom-delivery if required.

The beverage industry is faced with major challenges as far as filling and packaging are concerned, according to Carsten Stehle, MD of Trelleborg Sealing Solutions in Germany.

“With so much diversity in drink and dairy products currently, different types of beverages have to be filled by a single plant, said Stehle.

“It is very important that the aromas do not become intermixed – this applies especially to smaller producers, for example micro-breweries which make varieties of craft beer with different flavors, such as fig, grapefruit or coffee,” the MD further explained.

The carryover of flavours is an issue that can arise in a filling plant when different drinks or dairy products pass through the system one after the other, added Martin Krüger, area sales manager industrial at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions in Germany.

“For tastes and flavours to remain absolutely pure, the seals in the plant need to fit perfectly and must meet the highest standards of hygiene. This also means that there mustn't be any 'dead space' in the system where liquids can collect," said Krüger.

At Drinktec, Trelleborg will talk about how it uses finite element analysis (FEA) to simulate the behaviour of moulded parts during installation and in actual usage to improve the function of the seal. FEA can also facilitate the early detection of dead space in a plant, so that deposits and possible bacteriological contamination can be avoided.

Whether the product is a standard part in EPDM or complex moulded component made from specialist materials such as perfluoroelastomer (FFKM), Trelleborg said such design capabilities can enhance every sealing application encountered in a filling plant.