Herforder Brewery invests in the future
Safe drainage for the company premises
At the traditional brewery in East Westphalia, a wide variety of beers and mixed beverages are produced, filled, packaged and transported. Reliable drainage is particularly important on the company premises, which are roughly the size of 21 football fields – especially in areas such as the empties yard, where industrial trucks move large quantities of pallets every day.
Since 1878, the Herforder Brewery has grown to become East Westphalia’s most significant brewery, employing around 100 people. While in its founding year only 9,000 hectoliters left the premises by horse-drawn carriage, today more than 500,000 hectoliters of beer of various types, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, are brewed here annually. Up to 30 fully loaded trucks leave the yard every day.
Up to 50,000 beer bottles per hour
The brewery invested €20 million in its Herford site. A new bottling plant processes up to 70 container sizes (0.2–0.5 liters) and produces 50,000 bottles and 265 kegs per hour. 118,000 hectoliters of beer mature in modern tanks. A mixing plant also enables the production of beer mix drinks and tonic water.
The outdoor area is also being modernized. A new empties storage area for 10,000 pallets has been created on an area of around 5,000 square meters on the 150,000 square meter company premises. Employees move up to 3,500 pallets daily using electric forklifts. This makes reliable drainage of the asphalted area all the more important, using robust HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channels suitable for heavy-duty traffic.
New empty container storage area covering 5,000 square meters
Modernization is also underway in the outdoor areas. On the 150,000-square-meter company premises, a new empties yard covering around 5,000 square meters has recently been built to accommodate 10,000 pallets, enabling more efficient workflows. Every day, employees move up to 3,500 pallets here using electric forklifts. Reliable drainage of the asphalted area is therefore essential, ensured by the robust HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channels, which are designed for heavy-duty traffic.
For logistics areas covering several thousand square meters, it is crucial to ensure that the surfaces used by industrial trucks remain completely level. A drainage system must be capable of safely discharging surface water as well as any liquids that may escape from containers in the event of an incident.
Large-area drainage with special requirements
"For forklift traffic, a surface that is as level as possible is desirable. By connecting the asphalt directly to the HYDROblock®, a transition with only minimal height differences can be achieved, which also minimizes vibrations when driving over it.” explains Christian Fischer, planner at SM Ingenieurplan GmbH in Bielefeld. “It is also important that the channels remain durable under heavy loads over the long term. Based on experiences with other channels on the premises, removable grates were considered unfavorable.”
The developed drainage concept provides that the approximately 5,000 m² operational area is drained via five channel runs (HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channels) with a total length of around 220 meters. The collected surface water is routed through connection pipes (DN 200) into a concrete channel (DN 400). From there, the water flows into a stormwater retention basin, before being released in a controlled manner into a nearby body of water via the site’s existing network.
HYDROblock® - Heavy-duty channel made of ductile cast iron
The planners opted for the robust HYDROblock® DN 300 drainage channel, featuring an inlet cross-section of 1,191 cm²/m. Thanks to the EN-GJS-500 (ductile cast iron) material, the channel offers significant advantages in terms of fatigue resistance, particularly in heavy-duty applications. Its monolithic design, which eliminates loose parts, makes it ideally suited for high loads, even under transverse traffic. Matching inspection elements allow for easy maintenance and cleaning.
The drainage channel can be connected like a pipe using spigot and socket joints, ensuring full compatibility with standard KG pipes. An integrated NBR socket seal at the joint guarantees system tightness. The HYDROblock® can be directly paved, concreted, or asphalted, regardless of the load class.
