Less noise – more efficiency, safety and quality!
15 December 2025
Pure apple juice from ecologically valuable orchards and more: HEUFT has optimized the returnable and non-returnable lines at Wolfra Bayrische Natursaftkelterei in Erding for a fruity taste experience from flawless glass bottles and a smooth filling process.
In order to reduce the line noise, increase efficiency and ensure complete product safety, the Valensina Group company had the wet parts of its two lines for hot filling of natural quality fruit juices, juice spritzers, lemonades and iced teas renewed. Production in Erding had already been identified several years ago as a future location within the Valensina Group. Convinced of the sustainable growth of glass as a packaging material, the company invested in the modernisation of its filling lines in 2024 – and deliberately chose HEUFT as its project partner for line optimisation and inline inspection.
Plant manager Nils Wacker was particularly interested in HEUFT synchron conveyoir controls. These allow the sensitive glass bottles to be transported through the line without back pressure, so that they cannot collide with each other. This has a positive effect on the noise level and contributes to improved working conditions for employees. The performance of the various units in the system is also controlled harmoniously. The result: a continuous bottle flow that maintains both their efficiency and the quality of the natural Wolfra products.
Belts, conveyor control, fill management and labelling
The robust single and multi-lane conveyor belts of the HEUFT conveyor series were also impressive—not to mention the modular sorting, control, inspection, and labeling equipment from Burgbrohl. In the completely renovated reusable line, where up to 22,000 1-liter Vdf bottles and up to 33,000 0.2-liter Vdf and 0.5-liter NRW containers are filled with Wolfra fruit juice specialties every hour, practically all conveyors, belts, conveyor controls, and detection technologies are from HEUFT. Among the technical highlights, the plant manager there cites, for example, the slim HEUFT FinalView II CAP with HEUFT DELTA-FW flow rejector. Connected to the HEUFT SPECTRUM II VX fill management system, which, among many other things, checks fill levels and registers bottle bursts in the filling machine, it is now possible to carry out an all-around inspection of screw caps, identifying even the smallest faults and defects. The gentle removal of affected full containers is ensured by the multi-segment HEUFT DELTA-FW rejection system.
Shortly before the HEUFT TORNADO IIclassic applies wet glue labels to the bodies, backs, and necks of the returnable bottles, the HEUFT PRIME full container inspection system checks the presence of closures, fill levels, and container shapes once again for safety's sake. In addition to a clean-in-place function, the labeller itself incorporates additional detection technologies that check the presence, position, and type of labels immediately after labelling. The best-before date, EAN, and data matrix codes on the labels are verified by intelligent HEUFT reflexx A.I. cameras with the help of the HEUFT CyBridge.reciper IT tool, which implements end-to-end SKU management and thus ensures optimum traceability. The HEUFT CyBridge.profiler simultaneously records all relevant operating data and continuously analyzes the efficiency of the new Wolfra returnable line.
Fluid container transport and all-surface empty bottle inspection
The belt controls ensure a continuous container flow and thus high line efficiency. This means that stoppages at the filler are now much less frequent. The HEUFT SPECTRUM II SX sorting system ensures that refillable empty containers are fed in sorted by type by preventing foreign bottles from entering the nose section in the first place and removing them from the production flow using the HEUFT DELTA-FW diversion system. Behind the unscrewing device, the HEUFT ONE identifies containers that remain closed and diverts them using the HEUFT mono. Another HEUFT DELTA-FW removes bottles that have been registered as too dirty or damaged during the infeed check in front of the empty bottle inspector, before a special blow-off removes liquid residues from the threads of those that have passed.
This allows the HEUFT InLine II IS to then inspect all of their surfaces thoroughly in order to find foreign objects and defects using high-performance optics and intelligent HEUFT reflexx A.I. mage processing. The compact linear system also uses high-frequency technology to identify corrosive residual lye. Instead of collecting non-marketable empty containers on a bulky rejection table, two slim HEUFT LAMBDA-K systems use single-lane HEUFT belts to either return them upright to the washing machine or dispose of them permanently. All others reach the filling machine. HEUFT synchron conveyor controls supply it continuously, without jams or gaps. The HEUFT team had planned the highly automated new-generation empty bottle inspector so cleverly and connected it to HEUFT conveyor transporters that the original drying section of the system could be retained almost unchanged.
Full quality, safety and efficiency
This made it easier to decide to rely on HEUFT inspection and control technology when modernizing the disposable line, where up to 20,000 glass bottles per hour are filled with 0.5, 0.33, and 0.2 liters of Wolfra specialties. Another HEUFT SPECTRUM II VX with HEUFT FinalView II CAP and HEUFT VISION II now handles filler management, all-round inspection of closures, and container contour checking. Fill level deviations are reliably detected and the filling valve causing them is located at an early stage. And just as in the modernized returnable line, filling tube and bottle burst detection as well as sampling functions are also integrated into the modular complete system. The installation of a special bypass to the recooler, which reduces the temperature of the hot-filled glass bottles, also contributes to significantly increasing the efficiency of the disposable system at Wolfra.
Both lines now run more smoothly and efficiently. The plant manager of the natural juice press considers the current modernization goals to have been achieved. The filling capacity, which in 2022, even before the line optimization, was already 17 million liters in 26 million bottles, has increased further. This means that the long-established company, which is certified according to IFS Food Version 7 and DE-ÖKO-012, among others, will continue to offer its customers a genuine fruit experience of unadulterated top quality with well over 50 types of juice, lemonades and iced teas.
