Spotted cows, high running speeds, 1,700 farms, efficient machine safety gates, dedicated dairy farmers and 300 million kilograms of milk per year: the cooperative dairy Milchwerke Berchtesgadener Land processes and refines milk from the catchment area from the Watzmann to the Zugspitze to the highest hygienic standards. State-of-the-art systems, including high-speed doors from Efaflex, guarantee that fresh products and long-life milk arrive at the right place at the right time.

"The most important thing for me is the reliability of the doors from Efaflex," says Johann Hager, Senior Technical Manager at Milchwerke Berchtesgadener Land, explaining why he now uses 93 doors from the manufacturer of high-speed doors for industry. The EFA-SRT MS machine safety doors, through which all pallets from the conveyor line in production are loaded fully automatically onto electronically controlled electric overhead trolleys, open and close every minute.

The door leaf of the EFA-SRT-L is FDA-compliant for use with foodstuffs and is cross-stiffened for greater stability. © Efaflex

The EFA-SRT MS machine safety gates from Efaflex are suitable as a moving, separating safety guard with performance level "d" and, thanks to their space-saving, self-contained design, can be fitted very well into the required safety equipment. They are used exclusively for interlocking openings in or on machinery in accordance with Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and are characterized by their load-bearing capacity and stability. The standard door leaf is fully transparent and is fitted with warning strips as standard. Colored, highly tear-resistant and transversely stable curtains are also available. All curtain variants are free from paint wetting impairment substances.

The combination of a powerful frequency inverter control and a functionally adapted drive enables a very high cycle rate of up to 7 cycles per minute in production processes. Due to the lack of a counterbalance mechanism, the side frames are very narrow, which significantly reduces maintenance and wear. The doors are designed for 250,000 load changes per year.

A transparent cover provides a clear view of the integrated category 4 / performance level "e" safety limit switch in accordance with DIN EN ISO 13849-1. The safety guards can also be installed free-standing thanks to the optional floor supports. Uneven floors are compensated for by leveling screws.

The EFA-SRT-MS machine safety gates load 90 pallets from production fully automatically in half an hour. © Efaflex

All products stored in the cooperative dairy's three high-bay warehouses with a total of 20,000 pallet spaces are channelled through Efaflex doors. All three warehouses are operated fully automatically. Two of the buildings are refrigerated warehouses, which are kept at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. "We are a company that works sustainably in all areas," explains Andreas Koch, Deputy Technical Manager. "It goes without saying that we also keep the energy required to operate our high-bay warehouses as low as possible in terms of climate protection." The excellently insulated EFA-SST-L Premium spiral doors support these efforts by the cooperative dairy: they keep the cold inside the building through their insulating slats and reduce the loss of cold thanks to their fast opening and closing speeds and short hold-open times of 10 seconds.

Andreas Koch (left) and Johann Hager are convinced of the sustainable functionality of Efaflex doors. © Efaflex

"The Efaflex portfolio offers doors for almost all applications and the advice from the field service is based on the installation problem," says Johann Hager, describing the good cooperation between Bavaria's oldest organic dairy and the door manufacturer. "We get doors for the conveyor lines, we get insulating doors and we also use stainless steel-look cleanroom doors for the hygiene sluices between production building one and the bottling plant."