COLOGNE, GERMANY — During the just completed Victam International Trade Show, held in the KoelnMesse in Cologne, Germany, the winners of the Victam/FIAAP Innovation and Ingenuity awards were announced.

The two independent juries said they had a difficult decision to select the winners of these awards.


Dick Ziggers, editor of AllAboutFeed magazine, announced the eventual winners of the Victam/FIAAP Innovation Awards.

They are as follows:

• Bronze Award: European Machine Trading for their new Big Bag Filling Unit.

• Silver Award: Buhler AG for the DPEF Pellet Mill, which includes a specially developed motor with an output of as much as 585 kilowatts that powered the production of feed pellets with what the company describes as “an unprecedented level of efficiency.” The result is an output of up to 80 tph, despite the machine being very compact and easy to maintain. Buhler noted that it is the first machine in the animal feed industry to be designed without a gearbox or V-belts. Instead, the motor is directly connected to the main drive shaft and the dies, significantly reducing transmission losses.

• Gold Award: Amandus Kahl for the recently introduced Crown Expander, a device for shaping without a pelleting press. The pressure load in the expander acts on all sides of the coarse particles. The homogeneous pressure distribution on the entire particle circumference is supported by embedding these coarse particles in a pasty moist matrix of fine particles.

This was followed by Mr. Roger Gilbert of Grain & Feed Milling Technology Magazine who announced the winner and highly recommended runner-up of the newly introduced GRAPAS Ingenuity Award.

They are as follows:

• Highly recommended runner up: Golfetto Sangati of the Pavan Group for their Rollermill Synthesis SY09, a machine the company says is capable of satisfying the tightest sanitary standards, synonymous of milling precision and easy maintenance, versatile because of its modular construction that adapts itself to new plant demand. The base of the roller mill is in cast iron, whereas all the parts that come into contact with the product are made of stainless steel.

• The First Prize Winner: CPM Europe for its new product Roll Speed Measurement