Page 39

FT-Apr17-eMag

FROM NATURE TO TASTE www.foodtechnology.co.nz 39 In 1807, when Heinrich Bucher started from a blacksmith’s shop in the Swiss village of Niederweningen, he would never have imagined his business evolving into a multi-billion-dollar global machinery company. Today, the company now known as Bucher Industries AG has a number of specialised divisions; Kuhn Group, Bucher Municipal, Bucher Hydraulics, Bucher Special and Emhart Glass. The Bucher special business unit includes Bucher Vaslin (based in France), which is best known for its wine-making equipment; Bucher Landtechnik and finally Bucher Unipektin AG, with its beverage and environmental technologies departments still located in Niederweningen. This is home to Bucher’s engineering and logistics operations, assembly hall and state-of-the-art development laboratories.  Fruit and vegetable juice production:  More than 70% of the world’s apple juice is now produced with Bucher technologies, which includes fruit handling, washing, milling, pressing, filtration and concentration. Processors continue to adopt the company’s technologies as global competition in the juice business underlines the importance of optimised yields, which can be achieved with technologies such as the Bucher HP press. Bucher technologies are also used in berry, citrus and vegetable juice production. Milk and whey products: Through extensive experience in designing and construction of evaporators, Bucher Unipektin can supply different types of evaporators to the dairy industry for the concentration of whole milk, skim milk, whey, whey protein, sweet and condensed milk, and lactose. Innovative Drying Technologies:  Bucher Unipektin pushes the frontier of drying technology with the development of Zeodration adsorption and continuous freeze drying systems, providing maximum quality and best aroma retention. These innovations continue as Bucher’s highly qualified and experienced engineers develop tomorrow’s drying technology to meet customer needs. Its in-house laboratory is able to handle a variety of trials to assist in adapting theory to practice. Applications include - for example - soups, reaction flavours, spices, malted beverages and instant coffee. Environmental: We have adapted the highly successful Bucher Hydraulic press for solid/liquid separation in the dewatering of sludge in industrial and municipal effluent treatment, where significant improvements in separation efficiency have reduced solid waste volumes and disposal costs. The future: Over the generations, Bucher Unipektin has developed a number of new and innovative technologies for the beverage industries. The company continues to go from strength to strength. After the takeover of Unipektin Engineering AG a few years ago, Bucher further strengthened its beverage technology capability in the area of beer filtration by recently acquiring and intergrating the business of the world-leading Filtrox Group.  Bucher’s roots lie firmly in the innovation and solid workmanship that it has developed and honed over two centuries. This heritage, and the company’s vision, is best encompassed by the company’s motto ‘Simply Great Machines’. Over the generations, Bucher Unipektin has developed a number of new and innovative technologies for the beverage industries.


FT-Apr17-eMag
To see the actual publication please follow the link above