Discover your next big idea at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September
Experience a breakthrough in packaging & processing and transform your business with solutions from 2,300 suppliers spanning all industries.
REGISTER NOW & SAVE

Winery turns the tables on backups

Pacific Wine Partners uncorks more uptime at higher speeds and efficiencies since installing two compact accumulators that smooth production flow for tapered bottles. See video

Pacific Wine Partners positioned one accumulator inside the filling room (shown) and one further downstream ahead of the case pa
Pacific Wine Partners positioned one accumulator inside the filling room (shown) and one further downstream ahead of the case pa

Uptime is always at a premium, especially for Pacific Wine Partners, Gonzales, CA, bottlers of premium wines.

To address the ebb and flow of bottles that led to slowdowns and stoppages on a key production line, PWP installed two Infinity® accumulation systems from Garvey Corp. in late summer 2003. One is located between the filler and the capsule applicator-spinner, the other is positioned ahead of the case packer. Together, the accumulators keep the bottling line’s upstream and downstream operations running more reliably at higher speeds.

“It’s easy to see the buffer effects the tables provide,” observes PWP engineering manager Al Schroeder. “Each table gradually fills up, and gradually empties. They keep the line flow balanced and running.”

The 1/8” difference

What is especially noteworthy is that reverse-tapered bottles comprise about 85% of PWP’s bottling mix on this line, which yields 1.7 million cases of wine yearly. PWP’s bottles are only slightly tapered, 1/8’’ wider at the shoulder than at the base, but Schroeder says that’s all it takes to create major problems on conventional accumulators such as bidirectional units. Yet the tapered bottles present no problem for the Infinity systems, which permit zero-pressure conveying during temporary storage without falling bottles.

Before, line speeds were limited to 140 750-mL bottles/min, and were down to 120 bpm for the problematic tapered bottles. Since the accumulators were added, PWP operates the line at 180 bpm for either straight-walled or tapered bottles.

Production line efficiency has risen along with rates. Before, efficiency at the lower speeds peaked near 70%. Now, efficiency is “80 to 85%,” according to Schroeder.

Annual Outlook Report: Sustainability
The road ahead for CPGs in 2025 and beyond—<i>Packaging World</i> editors review key findings from a survey of 88 brand owners, CPG, and FMCG readers.
Download Now
Annual Outlook Report: Sustainability
Conveying Innovations Report
Editors report on distinguishing characteristics that define each new product and collected video demonstrating the equipment or materials as displayed at the show. This topical report, winnowed from nearly 300 PACK EXPO collective booth visits, represents a categorized, organized account of individual items that were selected based on whether they were deemed to be both new, and truly innovative, based on decades of combined editorial experience in experiencing and evaluating PACK EXPO products.
Take me there
Conveying Innovations Report