Practical honeycomb press for hobby beekeepers
   

This time it's not about vehicles: the latest project from the Munich Technical School is designed to make work easier for hobby beekeepers. With the honeycomb press designed by the students, beekeepers can sustainably produce honeycomb for honey production themselves. A variety of standardised parts from norelem were used in the press.

Natural honeycomb walls tend to be irregular and incomplete - with pressed walls, on the other hand, the bees utilise the entire space thanks to the prefabricated structure. This speeds up the honey production process and makes it more productive. Instead of laboriously melting the wax in a cooking pot and pressing the centre walls individually by hand, the honeycomb press allows several work steps to be completed quickly and with one device. Lightweight aluminium profiles were used for the base frame of the construction, on which the pressing table was built. Robust swivel castors make it easy to transport the system. The locking system ensures safety while working.

The honeycomb press has two operating modes: cleaning and pressing. Quick conversion is possible thanks to an indexing plunger. Cleaned wax is processed and melted in a double-walled tank. The lid of the heating basin can be safely removed using the thermally insulated pull handle. By pressing the start button (two-handed operation), the pneumatic lifting unit moves and generates a vacuum, which extracts the melted wax from the tank and then injects it into the mould. The dosing quantity can be adjusted thanks to variable stops. The movable side of the mould halves is closed with pneumatic cylinders and the injected wax is pressed. After around 30 seconds, the mould can be opened and the hardened middle walls can be removed by hand. The process can then be repeated as often as necessary.