December: Expertise is incorporated into prototype construction

Who: Philipp Wollenbär begin his apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic at KRONEN in 2013. He went on to take a further education course to become a qualified master metalworker, which he successfully completed this year. As a qualified industry expert in our work preparation team, Wollenbär works with his colleagues to ensure that our production activities run smoothly. He is also involved in the development of new machines, for example the K850 drying system.  

Like: The development of the  K850 was one of his most exciting projects because he was involved right from the word go and worked in close cooperation with the Design Engineering department and the project management team. “When constructing the machine prototype, I was able to draw on my expertise and manufacture or adapt components myself where required. This enabled our project team to react quickly and flexibly and to optimize the machine. When it comes to prototypes, the construction phase is challenging because it involves testing and improving the interaction between the different components. This is what makes working on prototypes such an interesting task.” 

The K850 is a drying system with a large-volume centrifuge measuring 850 mm in diameter. It is used for continuously drying cut lettuce, whole leaves and cut fruit and vegetables in a fully automatic process. The K850 is a further development of the K650 drying system and is able to produce large quantities of up to 5,000 kg of product per hour. The system is designed to be integrated into fully automatic production lines.   

Philipp Wollenbär traveled to the customer’s facility to put the first machines into operation. When he saw the drying systems integrated into large processing lines, he was impressed: “It’s great to see how the K850 can master big production quantities and how the customer uses it in fully automated lines. It makes me proud to have been a part of its development.” 

The K850 is now being used by customers with large production capacities all over the globe.