Slice fruit and vegetables with less waste than ever before

The GS 10 is the first name in belt slicing machines  with the highest sales numbers throughout the world, is in use in industrial settings, catering businesses and commercial kitchens wherever vegetables, fruit, poultry, bread and other groceries have to be processed as evenly as possible.

This product was the great success of Kronen GmbH, based in the town of Kehl in the region of Baden, south-west Germany. This company’s core area of expertise is cutting, washing, drying, peeling, slicing, mixing and packaging. For over a decade, Mulco partner Hilger und Kern, Mannheim, have played their part in this development with their intelligent and highly sophisticated timing belt drives.

The flexibility of Kronen’s refined GS 10 TTS belt slicing machine is incredible. It can slice carrots and lettuce, precisely cut baguettes, dice tomatoes, cut cucumbers into strips. The usefulness of this machine is only as limited as the operator’s creativity.

Have a look at how the Kronen team explains the operating method and functions of the GS 10 TTS: “By combining the machine with a horizontal outfeed belt, we are now able to control the product slice sizes and significantly reduce the amount of waste at the same time,” says Oliver Schlenker, the purchasing manager of Kronen GmbH. The GS 10 TTS can measure product sizes and reduce the waste in case of special cuts. For actual practice this means: The PLC machine control system calculates the section lengths according to the customer’s specifications and the product size. For instance, cucumbers can be cut in a “top&tail” process (the ends are cut off) and turned into even slices at the same time.

Ideal integration of timing belts for belt slicing machines

The GS 10 TTS is equipped with two high-performance CONTI SYNCHROFLEX AT5 GEN III polyurethane timing belts, which drive the cutting knife. In the standard machine version, another CONTI SYNCHROFLEX AT5 polyurethane timing belt drives the transport conveyor. These timing belts are produced by ContiTech Antriebssysteme GmbH, whose polyurethane timing belt range is produced for the Mulco group in the company’s plant in Dannenberg.

René Preßler of Hilger und Kern who supervises cooperation with Kronen GmbH, explains how this timing belt version was selected:

“The conveyor belt drive is not subject to any dynamic stress, which made it possible to equip it with a standard SYNCHROFLEX timing belt. The advantage of using the standard product was its low price. On the other hand, the cutting drive is subject to significant dynamic stress and has high positional accuracy requirements. For these reasons and because 25 % more power can be transmitted while using the same timing belt width, the timing belt gear for the cutting knife drive was equipped with Synchroflex GEN III polyurethane timing belts.”

Purchasing manager Oliver Schlenker adds:

“The technical supervision by Hilger und Kern helped design and calculate the drive, leading to a systematic selection of the required drive components. Altogether this resulted in the integration of a technically perfect drive and the thoughtful selection of the two timing belt versions also created an interesting price advantage.”