EFAFLEX doors at Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH Offenburg
The products leaving the Offenburg plant cover an unimaginable array of applications, ranging from milk-based and food-based ingredient specialties to special pharmaceutical products: Today, the focus is on drying and finishing, and the results are used in foods and food supplements as well as in pharmaceutical excipients.
Not only are the products and the manufacturing processes very different, the purposes and locations of use of the many high-speed roll-up EFAFLEX doors installed around the factory are just as diverse.
The factory in the centre of Offenburg was built between 1952 and 1969 on the site of the old dairy farm dating from 1944. New products required new production equipment, which in turn required modern buildings to be built. “With the growth of our company, our premises have undergone numerous extensions and conversions,” Frank Bonacker, Central Project Planning, explains.
During a tour of the company, he pointed out a number of high-speed roller doors. “Some of these doors are over 20 years old,” he recalls. “Some have already been removed and reinstalled multiple times due to changes in the factory.”
In particular, the production rooms as well as the filling and packaging systems are hermetically sealed with the EFA-SRT® EC cleanroom doors. Since 1993, EFAFLEX has been a contract manufacturer and a reliable partner for renowned companies in the food and pharmaceutical sectors.
As in many companies manufacturing products for these industries, Schwarzwaldmilch Offenburg also operates a wide variety of production areas with both negative and positive pressure. “In these areas, the EFA-SRT® EC (Easy Clean) doors guarantee a very high level of air tightness, so that the pressure in the room remains stable.”
In other departments of the large regional dairy plant, EFAFLEX’s high-speed doors maintain a positive pressure. For example, it is imperative that excipients produced for the pharmaceutical industry are not contaminated by foreign particles. The air flow must therefore always escape from the room when a door opens to create a barrier against a contamination of the room by any unwanted substances.
But the EFAFLEX doors are not only installed in the factory for maintaining pressure differences. In the dispatch warehouse, for example, an even constant temperature must be maintained for the employees.
Thanks to the high opening and closing speeds of the doors combined with the shortest hold-open phases, the hall does not cool down too much in the immediate vicinity during the cold season. “Here in the dispatch department, we probably have one of the first EFAFLEX doors that has been installed in the factory,” says Frank Bonacker. “
Like some other doors, this one has also been moved at least once from another installation location within the factory. The doors do not show this. They work perfectly well even after many years. I would always come back to EFAFLEX whenever I am on the market for a new door.
Expert for gentle spray drying
Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH Offenburg has been established for more than 80 years in the sector. In 1932, Ortenauer Milchhandels-Agentur was founded in the eastern part of Offenburg and in 1935, the current site in Okenstraße was acquired.
Since the 1950’s Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH Offenburg has been a well-known manufacturer of curd cheese, yogurt, butter and cream cheese. The company also started to increasingly produce feed and powder, liquid, and special foods.
Since then, Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH Offenburg has specialised in the technological areas of drying, filtration, separation, and fermentation. Since 1993, Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH Offenburg has also been a contract manufacturer for food, food supplements and pharmaceutical excipients.
The entire production of fresh products was moved to the Schwarzwaldmilch location in Freiburg in 2005. Since then, the focus of Schwarzwaldmilch GmbH Offenburg has been on milk and food drying as well as contract manufacturing.
Technical information on the EFA-SRT® EC highspeed roll-up doors
The EFAFLEX engineers have developed the high-performance high-speed doors in close cooperation with the food industry. The EFASRT® EC is used globally as an ideal solution for all passageways within indoor areas that are subject to stringent hygiene standards. The EFA-SRT® EC is the only hygienic roll-up door for the food industry recommended by the German Association of Food Inspectors (BVLK).
The entire roll-up door design is made from stainless steel with the elastic curtain fulfilling HACCP and FDA requirements. Due to the EFA-SRT® EC’s space saving design, it can also be used in installation conditions where space is restricted. The frame cover can easily be unlocked, and the door case can be removed for cleaning. In particular the BVLK praised the possibility of foaming and to steam jet cleaning.
The covering of the roll-up door winding shaft is slanted so that liquids can drain off and nothing will drop on the driveway or onto the food. The covering of the roll-up door can be turned upwards in no time, making it possible to easily clean the bottom edge, and the winding shaft is also reachable.
Every detail and part of the EFASRT® EC has been well thought through. The counterweights for weight compensation are protected against corrosion by means of a special coating.
The electric and electronic components of the microprocessors and frequency converters are housed in a V2A steel control box of protection class IP 65.
