“Reimann Wurstliebhaber” (which translates to “Reimann Sausage Fans”) is the name of the meat plant which, located in the Eichsfeld region of Thuringia, Germany, is jointly managed and operated by Tobias Reimann and his father. Even though customers are being offered a complete product range, sausage does play a fundamental role – and not only as a namesake. In order to fulfill that role, Reimann also uses the Robby-2 vacuum stuffer (also known as filler) from Vemag. In this field test, he talks about his practical experiences with that meat processing machine.
Vacuum stuffer for sausage fans
The region’s important and most widely known symbols of business card character are “Eichsfelder Feldgieker” and “Eichsfelder Stracke”. (To explain, the regions’s name “Eichsfeld” would translate to “Oak Tree Field”; “Feldgieker” is a special type of dry sausage, and “Stracke” a ground-meat counterpart.) In addition to those stand-out sausage brands, Reimann Wurstliebhaber produces more than 200 different products. A network of 33 branch outlets, located in the German states of Thuringia, Hesse and Lower Saxony, are the company’s most important product distribution centers, making for 95 percent of total sales, and the overall product range is set up accordingly: “We bank on being regional. Our most important products are sausage specialties in what could be called the home-made segment.
“We purchased the Robby-2 in late 2007”, Reimann remembers, “but the Vemag stuffer wasn’t entirely new to us either. As a matter of fact, we have already been working with Vemag vacuum fillers for five years now; and the changeover from Robby to Robby-2 was primarily the result of the latter model’s lifting and tilting device which really makes work for us quite a bit easier.” That particular device is controlled and operated by pertinent keys to the side of the portioning computer. As for outward looks, the bigger model mainly differs from the small one as a result of this lifting and tilting device, while the Robby-2 model is technically also designed to deliver higher performance in continuous operation: The nominal capacity of three tons per hour is better than ten percent higher than that of the preceding Robby model.
Operating the new vacuum stuffer didn’t actually turn out to be a new experience for Reimann: “As a matter of course, you must first of all key yourself through the menus when using this stuffer for the first time, but in our case there is hardly anything we can say about the time to get accustomed to the new model, because we were perfectly familiar with all the options thanks to the foregoing models already.” The vacuum stuffer is controlled via a portioning computer which allows the operator to precisely set, enter and adjust all product parameters. As an example, the decimal-ten keyboard allows correctness in weight to be set and adjusted in one-gram precision. “Portioning is very precise, and there are hardly any tolerances; but that is a fundamental condition anyway, and we certainly wouldn’t have procured this piece of equipment without it being fulfilled”, Reimann declares.
Once set and entered, product parameters can be stored by the portioning computer, with only a few keyboard touches necessary to again have them available later. Up to 99 programs can be stored in that way and manner. Another practical feature: the display panel shows feedback messages with respect to all inputs in plain text, and apart from German, various other languages can also be selected.
The vacuum control system, in other words the one that has been part of industrial-type Vemag equipment for many years now, practically excludes any vacuum pump damaging. The vacuum pot as such is directly in the field of view of the operator who will immediately see and recognize sucked-in stuffing material, meaning that the person operating the machine can stop it immediately, before any infill material can reach the vacuum pump.
Robust and versatile
Also receiving a good grade from Reimann are the manifold ways of how the vacuum stuffer can be used: “In the catalog, a filling performance of up to 3 t per hour is noted”, he declares, “even though that rate is, as a matter of fact, entirely dependent upon what products we have up for filling into what calibers. But then, we are still operating with reserves in performance.” That also goes for theoretically possible portion sizes: the portioning range can be freely chosen between 5 g and 60 kg. Says Reimann: “Quite so small and quite so large calibers are not included with our range, but it is naturally a good thing to have these options still up one’s sleeve.”
Also adding to the flexibility of Robby and Robby-2 are the specially adapted optional front-end appliances such as a link-off gear, a casings holder or a length portioning unit. But then, Reimann did not have to place a special order for these front-end add-on units in the first place: “There was no problem for us to take the link-off drive and the casings holder from the earlier model, the Robby, that is, and these appliances are stable, robust and highly practicable.”
Turning to the overall stuffer itself, Reimann views it as a thoroughly robust machine that offers compactness at the same time: “It goes without saying that the lifting and tilting device takes some additional space when compared to the preceding model; but with a particular view to its performance, this piece of equipment is of very compact and hence space-saving design. There are other machines around which, coming with a similar performance, need a whole lot more space for installation.”
Unproblematic cleaning and maintenance
“Equipment cleaning is highly uncomplicated”, Reimann points out, “there are absolutely no dirt corners where something could get lodged.” The machine housing is a one-piece construction without any crevices, nooks or corners. And the turn-slide pump, heart of the machine as such, can also be taken apart into its different components with just a few grips of hand, so cleaning is correspondingly easy as well. “Own maintenance work is practically not even there for us to perform”, Reimann relates, continuing: “all must do is give the unit reasonable treatment to a normal extent; for everything over and above that, there is our maintenance contract with Vemag.” What should also be noted is that it is not only the calendar that determines the next upcoming maintenance schedule, since maintenance work becoming necessary is shown on the portioning computer as well. What is also a cost and/or labor-saving point in this particular respect is the machine’s overall construction and design concept. Thanks to removable housing lids on two sides, the interior can be accessed fast and easily for all maintenance work necessary. Outside the regular maintenance intervals, Reimann only calls on Vemag’s service in extremely rare cases, as he himself asserts with satisfaction: “We have very few problems only, and in case something should really come up, there are many things that can simply be clarified over the phone.” But in case a Vemag technical service person should be needed, “then help is there relatively fast”. Given the best grade from Reimann, the service aspect may, after five years of experience with the Robby vacuum stuffer, have been one of the reasons to continue operations with the bigger sister model now.
When Tobias Reimann correlates the performance features of the Robby-2 to the cost of investment, he arrives at a distinctly clear-cut result: “The price:benefit ratio is, without a doubt, to be termed excellent”, states the meat processing company’s co-manager, with a business diploma to his name, in his evaluation. For him, reason for the changeover from Robby to Robby-2 was the lifting and tilting device. But that the new vacuum stuffer was again procured from Vemag also has its reasons in dependable service, in the hygiene/sanitation-friendly and, given all built-in robustness, surprisingly compact equipment construction and design, as well as in precise portioning, the parameters of which can be readily adapted to a given product’s needs by way of the portioning computer.Dirk Bongardt