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Machinery brings the future to Latrobe

The front end of this glass line for 12-oz Rolling Rock beer is practically an operator-free zone. Laser-guided vehicles replenish packaging materials on demand. See in-plant video

The system shown here includes a robotic positioner that picks a bundle of 12-count corrugated shippers, orients the bundle, cut
The system shown here includes a robotic positioner that picks a bundle of 12-count corrugated shippers, orients the bundle, cut

When it comes to feeding incoming packaging materials, few bottling lines require as little human intervention as the new 12-oz glass line for Rolling Rock beer at Latrobe Brewing Co. of Latrobe, PA. Unloading pallet loads of bottles, removing pallet bands, delivering pallets of paperboard basket carriers and corrugated blanks to erecting machines, feeding bundles of corrugated blanks to case erector magazines, feeding crowns to the crowner—in every case, operators typically take a hands-off approach and let a sophisticated combination of conveyors, laser-guided vehicles, and robotic loading devices perform most of these tasks.

The $14.5 million line was sold and installed by The Beverage Div. of Italy’s Sasib S.p.A as a turnkey project, including engineering and project management. The SIG Group of Switzerland recently acquired Sasib’s Beverage Div., which now has the name of SIG-Simonazzi (Plano, TX).

At Latrobe Brewing, it all begins where pallets of Rolling Rock’s famously decorated bottles arrive in a 2x11 pattern on trucks that roll up to the brewery’s unloading dock. Unlike most such plants, forklifts are completely out of the picture. Instead, pallets are pulled automatically out of the trailer on a system engineered primarily by SIG-Simonazzi (see video).

“We use trailers specially equipped with roller beds and chain conveyors,” says packaging manager Bill Allison. “We back the trailer up to the dock, push a button, and unload the entire trailer in about five minutes with no operator handling at all.”

This bulk glass delivery system is so reliable, there’s no empty glass inventory to speak of. It’s this kind of J-I-T philosophy that permeates the entire facility.

“The only glass we keep on hand are two trailer loads out in the lot to hedge a bit in case of traffic delays or something,” Allison says. Snow-melting gear embedded in the pavement also helps ensure smooth winter deliveries without any need to plow or shovel snow.

Automatic band cutter

Freed from their trailers, pallets are conveyed to an automated overhead depalletizer from SIG. Just before reaching the hoist section of the depalletizing system, each pallet pauses briefly in a band cutter station supplied by Pearson Packaging Systems (Spokane, WA). Rolling Rock is only the second plant to use this new Pearson equipment (see video).

“It’s equipped with servo motors that let its band-cutting head cover multiple axes,” says Allison. “Its sensors enable it to find all eight bands, cut each one, and bring each band to a chopper for recycling. The system also clamps down on the top frame to keep everything steady while cutting is underway.”

Once bands are removed, the pallet is conveyed to the hoist section of the SIG depalletizer. Top frames on each pallet and slip sheets that separate each layer of bottles are removed by a vacuum pickup system and stacked. Later, these are returned to the Anchor Glass Container (Tampa, FL) glass plant 40 miles away in Connellsville, PA, where the bottles are made and decorated with applied ceramic labeling.

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