Trainee at fair: Krones’ exhibits at the Brau 2014 – Vol. 4: Evoguard valves

In their last contribution, Nina and Markus provided an illuminating report on the Linatronic; today they are spotlighting further exhibits that will be on show at the BrauBeviale 2014: the valves and pumps from Evoguard. This time, the hunt for information involved a rather special adventure.

Nina and Markus, together with Julia and Fred from the LCS Team, had an opportunity to visit the Evoguard plant in Nittenau, and see the exhibits live. There, the four of them not only had a guided tour of the plant, but were also provided by Product Specialist Willi Wiedenmann with all conceivable information and data on the valves and pumps concerned.

Evoguard valves – small but excellent

Compared with other products and machines on show at the Brau, valves are indeed small, but they are very important: because valves, we have learned, are fundamental to all safe and automated processes, and are required in every bottling or canning line. So it was very interesting for us to visit Evoguard and have Product Specialist Willi Wiedenmann tell us all about the various types of valve involved and how they function.

After we arrived at Evoguard in Nittenau – a big thank-you goes to the staff at Nittenau, who told us how to get to Evoguard when we lost our way 🙂 – we were first given some basic information. We learned about the different types of valve involved: there are quite a lot of them! Such as disk valves, seat valves, double-seat valves, control valves, sampling valves or double-seal valves.

Different application categories and requirements

All valves are used for something different. We learned, for example, that for handling milk and juices you need special aseptic valves. And also that valves make sure we can enjoy a glass of milk without any burned chunks, because the processes involved are based on sterile process engineering designed to prevent any such thing. These aseptic valves have to meet stringent hygiene requirements.

TÜV SOUTH certification

Independent institutes have tested the Evoguard valves, and confirmed that they meet these requirements. Willi Wiedenmann proudly informed us, for instance, that the Evoguard valves were the only ones to have been certified by design reviews conducted by TÜV SOUTH technical inspectorate. When he told us what problems had already been encountered with valves from other manufacturers, we quickly realised how the Evoguard valves qualified for this accolade:

Firstly, the valves are always meticulously tested. In order to guarantee a high standard of quality, for example, each Evoguard seat valve is checked at a test rig. Secondly, when the Evoguard valves were being developed, the defects in valves from other manufacturers were being meticulously scrutinised so as to guarantee they would not occur in the Evoguard valves.

Willi Wiedenmann also had some valves with him to show us the salient features of the various designs. Another product category at Evoguard GmbH is pumps, about which we were also provided with abundant information: all pumps are energy-optimised and cover a throughput range of up to 8 bar and 100 m³.

What we particularly liked was the guided tour of the plant we were then given, during which we saw plenty of valves live. That was very interesting! Afterwards we understood a whole lot better precisely how all this works, and how the various designs differ from each other. After all, we have to be well-informed by the time the Brau arrives! So till our next blog posting… 🙂