GEA, one of the world’s largest systems suppliers of process technology, is showcasing its Kytero 2000 single-use separator at this year’s Automation Fair. Rockwell Automation’s annual event is currently taking place in Chicago. Our journalist Abigail Saltmarsh is on-site reporting for DirectIndustry.
The K2000 is one of the flagship demonstrations in the Life Sciences section of the Industry Pavilion at the event which runs until today. The separator is now fully compatible with Rockwell Automation control systems.
Patrick Eickhoff, Director of Software and Digitalisation at GEA, said the compatibility with Rockwell’s latest hardware and software solutions provided customers with an easy to integrate, digitized centrifuge solution.
“The technical challenge for us was that customers had their own specifications and standards, but what we have done now is to tackle those challenges by only using open automation standards,” he explained. “This means we are now compatible with Rockwell and can provide 100% state-of-the-art technology.”
Seamless Integration
The compact, plug-and-produce Kytero 2000 is now compatible with Rockwell’s FactoryTalk Optix. This brings unified interfaces, cloud connectivity and advanced analytics, including FactoryTalk Analytics GuardianAI, which enables real-time monitoring of drive performance and process optimization.
Smriti Khera, Head of Life Sciences Strategy and Marketing at Rockwell, said:
“You can take the Kytero, which is used within the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sector, and integrate it into your plant automation within minutes.”
Separation Technology
Centrifuges use high-speed rotation to create a force to separate substances of different densities. As they spin, solids and heavier liquids are pushed to the outer walls of the chamber. The K2000 is ideal for bioreactors with batch capacities of up to 2,000 litres, said Mr. Eickhoff.
“We are building separators for 3,500 processes, including those in food and beverage, such as dairy and milk products, olive oil and beer. “These separators are ideal for cell harvesting or centration within the pharmaceutical life science area; they are used for biodiesel and chemical products. Basically any process where you need to separate solids from liquids or two liquids of different densities.”
Complete Traceability
Single-use separators are increasingly used for batch processing. Indeed, they eliminate the need for complex cleaning protocols and offer less risk of contamination.
“The Kytero 2000 is ideal for the pharmaceutical and life science sector, where our customers need to trace their complete production back to the raw material. So, whenever their batch is finished, they can throw away whatever has touched the product and we deliver them a completely new rotating assembly and feed tubing.”
Everything is completely sterilized, with a unique serial number. This ensures a 100% traceability.
Working Together
Mr. Eickhoff underlined that GEA was already using Rockwell solutions for other processing equipment within its portfolio.
“We have had a strong relationship over the years and now we have had another breakthrough together,” he added. “The collaboration here is really with three companies – Eplan, our partner for electrical design, and Rockwell, our partner for hardware and software solutions. As an OEM, this means we are giving our customers the best technology that is on the market.”
