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Send to KindleA switch to plastic at Beam
At the opposite end of the line, where empty bottles are introduced, is another new piece of equipment required by the shift to PET: a bottle unscrambler from Posimat. “Once again, we saw these running in other food and beverage plants we went to, and Posimat was well represented,” says Land. “Also, this machine gives us all the capacity we’ll need in the future.”
The future Land refers to will require a larger filler than the 48-valve filler currently in the line. “Both the unscrambler and the case packer are designed for 500 bottles per minute,” says Land. “Currently we don’t go past 400 per minute.” The time will come, however, when 400/min won’t suffice, and at that point a new filler will be installed.
The third piece of new equipment at Beam’s Frankfort plant is a vision inspection system from Mettler Toledo CI-Vision. It uses three high-resolution cameras to inspect for correct label, label positioning, label skew, label flagging, high cap, corked cap, and fill height. Familiarity with CI-Vision systems in other Beam plants was a key consideration in selecting this particular unit, which is mounted just downstream from the Krones labeler.
“Krones reconditioned the labeler for us,” says Land. “Two pressure-sensitive labeling modules, one for front label and one for the back, now take the place of the glue-applied labeling station that had been used for glass bottles. The pressure-sensitive labels adhere better to a plastic bottle than glue-applied labels. Also part of the upgrade was a new PLC control panel. We saved about 30% by going this route instead of buying a brand new labeler.”
Also upgraded was the Fogg filler and Fowler/Zalkin capper.
As for bottle vendors, Land indicates the bottles come from Amcor and Berry Plastics.
“Market research indicated that consumers would be fine with our products in PET,” says Land. “These bottles are a little narrower front-to-back than their glass counterparts, but in height and width they’re nearly identical.”
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