DRIVE SYSTEMS FOR
TOOTHPASTE PRODUCTION
CASE STUDY: EKATO SYSTEMS
Largest system worldwide
for toothpaste production.
Mixing,
rapidly and continuously.
High capacities,
yet flexible and resilient.
Robust and compact
agitator drives.
NORD
industrial geared motors.
The world‘s largest toothpaste batch production system features
giant agitators put in motion by industrial geared motors with
output torques well above 200,000 Nm – and a single-piece
cast housing for the gears.
PROJECT CHALLENGE
PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS There is a growing trend in the hygiene and er product range, but significant boosts in
INDUSTRY personal care industry towards the con- capacity do require advanced engineering
Toothpaste batch
centration of production facilities in only know-how.
production system
a few select locations. These fewer sites
must inevitably turn out a broad variety of Robust and compact agitator drives. –
products. Production machinery therefore In order to create a larger-than-ever batch
has to be designed to yield great quan- production mixer, EKATO had to thoroughly
tities as well as to provide top flexibility. consider dosage and dispersion times,
EKATO SYSTEMS GmbH set out to de- blend and homogenization times, and vac
GEARED MOTORS uum values for the super-sized design.
Industrial geared motors velop a new toothpaste production system
with helical bevel gears that would meet both challenges. NORD‘s task as the drive supplier was to
configure gears and motors suited to the
Higher capacity and more variety. – agitator and homogenizer specifications,
Toothpaste can be made in a continuous with a view to high efficiency and durability.
process or in batches. Continuous pro- As the agitator drives were to be installed
duction scales well, but is quite inflexible on top of the production mixers, they also
as regards product changes, since differ had to be kept as compact as possible –
ent ingredients sometimes need their own in spite of the extremely high performance
dispensing and blending technology, and expected of them.
recipe changes often call for readjustments.
Discontinuous systems, on the other hand,
are much more accommodating of a broad
FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER
Based in Schopfheim at the fringes of the Black Forest,
EKATO SYSTEMS GmbH is one of the leading developers
and manufacturers of process mixing systems especially for large-scale
plants in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, specialty chemicals, and food
industries. In addition to ever more powerful industrial agitators, the
company‘s product range comprises high pressure homogenizers, sol
ids mixers and dryers as well as mechanical seals and supply systems.
APPLICATION SOLUTION
UNIMIX systems consist of a vessel fitted with industrial gears that provide nominal
with an agitator, a homogenizer, and vari- output torques of 242,000 Nm.
ous dispensing mechanisms for the intro-
duction of ingredients into the process. Until Super-sized space-savers. – NORD is the
recently, such toothpaste batch production only manufacturer in the world to produce
vessels were designed for no more than even industrial gear units as powerful as
4,000 to 5,000 liters. The two mixers newly these in a single-piece cast design. Their
engineered by EKATO hold roughly twice impressive size notwithstanding, the type
the volume of the largest previously availa- SK 15407 3-stage helical bevel gear units
ble mixers, and the production system as used in this process achieve a compara-
a whole achieves at least three times the tively compact footprint. The one-piece
former maximum production output. housing provides for
Huge loads and high torques. – Homo ■■ a highly reliable and leak-proof
geneous product quality is paramount in construction,
this application. That means the drive so- ■■ bearings accommodating greater
Robust single-piece
lution must be designed to respond quickly, torques, construction. – Industrial
unfailingly ensure continuity, and sustain ■■ high resilience against axial and radial
geared motors at the agitator
the formidable forces on the agitator shaft strain, handle massive loads.
owed to the mixture‘s high viscosity. NORD ■■ low maintenance needs and a long
DRIVESYSTEMS configured and supplied service life.
two motors delivering more than 150 kW
FOCUS ON THE PROJECT
In the world‘s greatest toothpaste batch production facility, the agitators of EKATO‘s
giant UNIMIX systems are moved by powerful industrial geared motors from
NORD, which rely on a resilient gear housing cast in a single piece. Providing about
three times the capacity of the previously largest installation, the plant features
■■ two mixers with an effective volume of 10,000 liters each and
■■ an output of 6,000 to 11,000 kg of product per hour.
MORE NORD APPLICATIONS
YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING:
www.nord.com/references
Headquarters:
CS0005 Mat.-Nr. 6066202 / 4514
Getriebebau NORD GmbH & Co. KG
Getriebebau-Nord-Straße 1
22941 Bargteheide, Germany
Fon +49 (0) 4532 / 289 - 0
Fax +49 (0) 4532 / 289 - 22 53
[email protected], www.nord.com
Member of the NORD DRIVESYSTEMS Group
