News –

Intelligent NORD drives automate craft beer brewery

Drive units from NORD DRIVESYSTEMS have been successfully used in the beverage industry for many years. They significantly support the automation of the brewing process and adapt easily to the requirements of the respective recipes thanks to their intelligent control system. Rabek Engineering GmbH designed a flexible, reliable and low maintenance brewery plant for the Landgang Brauerei in Hamburg, relying on drive technology from NORD DRIVESYSTEMS.

 - - German English -

Bargteheide, 2020-05-25

NORD technology helps the Landgang Brauerei not only by saving time, but also in obtaining a perfect brewing result. Even before the actual brewing, the process depends on a NORD drive unit. It carefully controls the malt grinder so that the crushing preserves the husks, which are to carry out their filter function later. During the next step, a tube chain conveyor supplied with a powerful NORD geared motor gently transports the crushed grains into the brewhouse. With as little friction as possible, the husks remain intact.

NORD drives support brewhouse management

The brewhouse has been equipped with decentralised, intelligent NORD drives so it can be operated precisely. Given the large weight of the viscous mash during the brewing process, a drive designed for high loads with variably controllable speed is required. The built-in frequency inverter with its integrated PLC enables the drive to decouple the different types of movement of blade and agitator, such as lifting, lowering and rotating. For this purpose, the drive unit was equipped with a hollow shaft. This special version facilitates the flexible combination of movements according to the recipe.

Managing the variety of craft beer recipes in a competent manner

Preparation and processing of all ingredients is fully automated. In addition, the PLC integrated in the frequency inverter controls each drive unit individually. Each drive retrieves the applicable motion sequences for the respective recipes and the PLC uses this data to adjust the system performance according to recipe specifications regarding consistency, volume and weight of the ingredients. Regarding the craft beer brewery’s numerous formulas and the different demands on the equipment involved, it becomes apparent how beneficial such a control system is.