The H stands for HYGIENE!
The Emmi Group in Switzerland fills grated cheese with the FMH 22.
Emmi – a global player with a long tradition
With around one billion kilograms of processed milk in 2019, the Emmi Group from Switzerland is without doubt one of the global players in the milk processing industry. The company, which is headquartered in Lucerne (Switzerland), currently generates around half of its sales at home and 50 per cent abroad worldwide. In 2019, the company’s turnover was CHF 3.45 billion. More than 6,400 employees work for the Emmi Group at a total of 21 locations – 13 of which are in Switzerland.
Emmi has been writing a success story for more than a hundred years. Originating from a dairy farmers’ cooperative in 1907, the company was able to maintain its position as a reliable dairy even in times of world wars, phases of economic downturn and increasing industrialization. Today, Emmi is the largest milk processor in Switzerland and has developed over the past 20 years from a medium-sized, regionally-oriented company into a successful international group.
The FMH 22 in Kirchberg
At the Kirchberg site in Switzerland, SN Maschinenbau has also been contributing to the Emmi Group’s success since 2019. A SN FMH 22 packaging machine is being used successfully for one of the three grated cheese lines due to the special hygienic requirements.
Over 23,000 tonnes of cheese are currently processed and packaged in Kirchberg every year. The fact that Emmi relies on the FMH 22 from SN Maschinenbau in Kirchberg is due not least to the high demands that Emmi places on a modern packaging plant. The aim was to be able to offer a new premium product range in high- quality stand-up pouches, replacing the resealable tubular pouches that were previously in use.
The machines of the “H family” are particularly impressive due to their open design. For example, the machine table in the pouch production section has been replaced by square stainless steel square struts turned by 45°. This primarily simplifies cleaning, as product residues can hardly deposit on surfaces and thus fall to the floor. In addition, this concept offers significantly improved accessibility for maintenance work.
SN Maschinenbau’s H-series clearly distinguishes itself from its competitors by its transparent and high-quality machine casing made of Makrolon. All functional areas are very well visible and easy to access. A special lighting concept allows the machine to light up in red, sector by sector in accordance with any faults that may occur. This makes it even easier for the machine operator to locate errors. Meaningful messages on the 19” operating panel are of course also standard on the new FMH 22. In addition, the redesign of the machine has resulted in a reduction of approx. 60% in the length of electrical cables. Increased service life of the machine components as well as the usual high machine availability provide a lasting contribution to reducing operating costs. Setup and format changeover times have also been reduced with the FMH 22 from SN Maschinenbau. This has been achieved by the numerous automatic format changeover features of the machine. The format parameters are loaded directly from setup database and relevant format parts are changed over automatically.
Emmi and SN – a successful collaboration
Knowledge of the dairy industry, many years of experience in the grated cheese sector and, last but not least, a convincing price/performance ratio in a highly competitive market environment were the crucial arguments for Emmi to decide for SN Maschinenbau. According to the Swiss company, SN was also the winner of the supplier evaluation and impressed the jury with its competent and customer-oriented support during the planning and implementation phase. SN is a flexible partner that has found unconventional and rapid solutions, particularly for special requirements. Examples of this are the gassing technology to reduce the residual oxygen in the bags, the merging of the bags, the application of fan-folders and the integration of a thermal transfer printer. The machine’s innovative hygienic design was especially convincing, as product quality and safety are Emmi’s top priorities. From the planning to the production phase, SN Maschinenbau was able to convince the jury with “perfect planning”, “qualified personnel resources”, “constant communication” and “great flexibility” – both on site and via the service hotline.
Thanks to the “proper planning”, there were no unforeseen disruptions whatsoever, according to Emmi.
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