Witn an investment of CHF56m (of which 70% euqipment), Switzerland's Hochdorf has installed what they call the world's most modern drying plant for infant food formulas. The project concerned the plant in Sulgen, was carried out in record time and has doubled production capacities of the company. IDM took a look at the site.

"In 2006/2007, our production capacities were almost fully utilized. At the same time we realized that Hochdorf group could exploit a great potential for sales in the world market given the continuous growth of world population," explains Werner Schweizer, CEO of Hochdorf's Swiss Milk division which is responsible for sale of milk powders.

Proven technology

The project was carried out at Hochdorf's production division Nutritec under the name "Tower 8". The Sulgen plant which has been traditionally drying milk for decades has now 4 spray drying towers plus 2 pilot dryers and 3 drum dryers in operation. The actual addition was supplied by Lübbers Anlagen- und Umwelttechnik GmbH from Germany together with a number of other companies and produces up to 3,300 kg of infant powders per hour.

"Our concept bases on proven technology. We did not want any tricky individually manufactured components. With improved process management and skilled workers we now can operate on highest level," explains Nutritec CEO Dr. Karl Gschwend the project's philosophy. "We hired Lübbers because of the air duct, the quality of the fluidized bed, the exhaust air filtration and their overall Hygienic Design. Partner for the wet processing part was Tetra Pak Processing. This company can mobilise huge resources and supplies together with CPS, in our opinion, the best in evaporation technology," Mr. Gschwend continues. The pre-concentrator operates with mechanical and the main stage concentrator with thermic vapour compression. Tetra Pak has also brought Hochdorf's preferred automation specialist Tophinke AG into the game as both Hochdorf and Tetra Pak regularely use their skills. Tophinke have automated both the wet and the dry part of the operation, based on Simatic and WinCC.