The Herforder Brewery is sending a strong signal for the future: with an investment of 20 million euros, the company is modernizing its bottling plant and empties yard. A central element of the new infrastructure is the innovative drainage technology from HYDROTEC. The HYDROblock® DN 300 system made of ductile cast iron is being used – a monolithic, maintenance-friendly solution that can also withstand the high loads in the logistics sector.
Background: The traditional brewery in East Westphalia produces, bottles, packages, and ships a wide variety of beers and mixed beverages. Reliable drainage is particularly important on the approximately 21 football field-sized premises. This is especially true in areas such as the empties yard, where industrial trucks move large quantities of pallets every day.
Since 1878, the Herforder Brewery has developed into East Westphalia's most important brewery with a good 100 employees. While in the year it was founded, 9,000 hectoliters left the premises by horse-drawn carriage, more than 500,000 hectoliters of various types of beer, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, are now brewed here every year. Up to 30 fully loaded trucks leave the premises every day.
Modernization of the outdoor area
The brewery invested 20 million euros in the Herford site. A new bottling plant processes up to 70 container sizes (0.2–0.5 l) and produces 50,000 bottles and 265 kegs per hour. 118,000 hectoliters of beer mature in modern tanks. A mixing plant also enables the production of beer mix drinks and tonic water.
New empties yard with suitable drainage channels
The outdoor area is also undergoing modernization. A new empties yard for 10,000 pallets has recently been built on an area of around 5,000 square meters on the 150,000 square meter company premises, enabling more efficient workflows. Employees move up to 3,500 pallets here every day using electric forklifts. This makes reliable drainage of the asphalted area with robust HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channels suitable for heavy-duty traffic all the more important.
In logistics areas covering several thousand square meters, it must be ensured that the surfaces used by industrial trucks are completely level. A drainage system must safely drain surface water and any liquids from containers in the event of an accident.
Large-area drainage with special requirements
"A traffic area that is as level as possible is desirable for forklift traffic. By connecting the asphalt directly to the HYDROblock®, a transition with only minimal height differences can be achieved, so that the vibrations of the forklift are also minimal when driving over. It is also important that the channels are durable in the long term under high loads. Removable grates were deemed unsuitable based on experience with other channels on the company premises," explains planner Christian Fischer from SM Ingenieurplan GmbH in Bielefeld.
The drainage concept developed provides for the approx. 5,000 m² area to be drained via five channel strands (HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channels) with a total length of approx. 220 m. The surface water collected is fed into a concrete channel (DN 400) via connecting pipes (DN 200). The water enters the existing network on the site via a rainwater retention basin and is discharged into a body of water at a controlled rate.
HYDROblock® – heavy-duty channel made of ductile cast iron
The planners opted for the robust HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channel with an inlet cross-section of 1,191 cm²/m. Thanks to the EN-GJS-500 material (ductile cast iron), the drainage channel offers significant advantages in terms of material fatigue, especially in heavy-duty applications. The monolithic design and the absence of loose parts make it ideal for high loads, even when driven over transversely. Matching inspection elements allow for easy maintenance and cleaning.
The drainage channel can be connected like a pipe using spigot ends and sleeves, which allows full compatibility with standard KG pipes. The integrated NBR sleeve seal at the channel joint ensures the tightness of the channel system. The HYDROblock® can be paved, concreted, or asphalted directly, regardless of the load class.
Source: www.hydrotec.com
