When Wye Valley Brewery in Bromyard, Herefordshire started planning their new packaging hall, it was important to maximise the flexibility of the packaging hall to allow both bottling and canning on the same line. Here’s how they did it.
Wye Valley Brewery has recently undertaken a project to revamp its packaging facilities. Whilst the space was a challenge the final layout ensured good access, rationalisation of operators and good functionality.
The line was supplied and installed by Enterprise Tondelli who also supplied the new bottling line too.
The empty and full product warehouse is located at a lower level so the high level empty can depalletiser was situated on a lower level.
The all stainless steel empty can depalletiser from Enterprise Tondelli manufacturer Eurosistemi has automatic layer card removal and a very compact footprint not much bigger than an empty can pallet.
Cans are fed at high level to a twin lane gravity can cleaner that uses de-ionised filtered compressed air to remove any foreign bodies.
The use of de-ionised air means no water consumption which can be as much as a thousand litres per hour on conventional rinser thus reducing impact on the environment.
As well as flow sensor the rinser is also fitted with a flow meter so it cannot detect any blocked nozzles to guarantee effective cleaning.
Twin lanes ensure easy change over between 330 ml and 440 ml that the brewery run on the line just by switching a gate at the top.
Cans can be either pre-printed or for some smaller runs they are labelled on an empty labeller supplied by Enterprise Tondelli.
This simple machine is part of Enterprise range of in-line labellers for slower applications and can be configured for both bottles and cans.
As cans are filled at 2-4 degrees C. the cans are pre-labelled before filling to ensure good adhesion by the self adhesive labels to a clean and dry surface with no bubbles or wrinkling or slippage.
A rotary can filler/seamer was installed that fills by counter pressure for minimising of dissolved oxygen and also control of fob.
Cans are flushed with CO2 before sealing and multiple times after sealing against the filling valve. The CO2 used for flushing does not come from the filler bowl but from a separate gas ring to give better control of flow for more effective flushing.
The filler is fully enclosed with hepa filtration and laminar flow of air for hygiene. An x ray level inspector rejector is fitted on the discharge.
After level inspection cans are inverted, pass through a Eurosistemi TF1 air drying tunnel with directionable nozzles and punt drying prior to coding. All of the above is very easy for one operator to access and monitor.
After drop twist the cans feed into the bottle conveyor system that feeds them to the Baumer packer.
This incredibly flexible machine then packs the cans into fully enclosed kraft board fridge pack in fours and sixes as multipacks.
Or it can pack 12 cans into a kraft board wrap-around carton. This machine packs the bottles into wrap-around cartons of 12 packs and can also make a 4 bottle pack too. Baumer can now supply kraft board FEC packers at 65 packs per minute too.
Of course the 4 and 6 multipacks need to be consolidated together for palletising so a second Baumer packer was installed next tow the first allowing one operator to with the two Baumer machines.
The second machine has a continuous motion 90 degree infeed featuring a rotating wheel with pushers to make lines of 3 four packs or two six packs which are then automatically loaded into a high sided wrap-around tray for palletising and distribution.
The use of high sided trays means no shrink film waste as only cardboard is used from sustainable sources.
Trays or boxes then go to a low level pack palletiser with high level infeed from the packaging hall to be palletised on a Fipal palletiser.
Some products running on the line include 330 ml Fandango. This humdinger of a hoppy brew is full of tropical flavours and light, citrusy crowd-pleasing undertones that will have craft-beer fans dancing with delight.
Also Wye Valley’s lager called 1985 is a deliciously refreshing premium lager that boasts a moreish malty base, flecked with delicate floral notes.
Pale straw in colour, 1985 is brewed using the best of British hops together with European lager hops to give this unique lager a cool, crisp taste.
Enterprise Tondelli has been working in the industry since 1977 and supplying equipment in over 40 countries. The Wye Valley Brewery canning project is just one of the latest projects by Enterprise that has ranged in scope from nitro beer canning, high speed wine bottling and turn key beer bottling.
Suppling canning lines 1,500 to 72,000 cans per hour , bottling from 600 to 60,000 bph and kegging lines too. This wealth of experience ensures Enterprise add something to all their projects.
