Blower-powered bottle-drying systems for increased production

A blower-powered bottle drying system was just what the Woodchuck Cidery, a small apple wine producer in Proctorsville, Vermont, needed, after taking the initial steps to creating the first truly American hand-crafted hard (alcoholic) cider for over 200 years. The company started by making just small batches, performing many production tasks by hand, including topping out the bottles with a turkey baster, applying labels and filling the kegs.

Today, the Woodchuck Cidery has a state-of-the-art production facility with a keg-filling system and automated bottling lines. The company has recently installed a blower-powered bottle drying system to help keep up with the growing demand and satisfy today's labelling and ink jet coding requirements. The bottle drying system was supplied by ACI Inc., the US subsidiary of Air Control Industries of Axminster. The drying line is based upon ACI's "JetPLate' system.

ACI's JetPlate system comprises facing air-delivery plenums that can be positioned close to the travelling bottles, ensuring drying efficiency whilst simultaneously acting as guide rails to prevent bottles from falling over and causing line hold-ups. The JetPlates are complemented by pairs of airknives and adjustable air-delivery nozzles to provide detail cap and neck drying to prevent moisture retention under the crown tops and ensure secure adhesion of neck labels. Air for these systems is provided by an ACI "EL' semi-enclosed blower unit. This is leg mounted, so can be installed alongside bottle/can lines or even straddle them.

The ability of the ACI system to handle the company's increased throughput of 600 bottles/min is illustrated by reduced instances of coding illegibility from 30 per cent down to 3 per cent and more accurate label placing, with no defects jumping from 50 per cent up to 99.9 per cent.

In addition, the JetPlates require minimal adjustment for different bottle sizes permitting rapid line change overs from one product to another. They can handle bottles ranging in size up to 3 litres. At the Woodchuck Cidery the bottle sizes are standard 12oz and 22oz bottles varying in colour from green, brown and clear bottles.

Russ Beatty, Quality Manager, says: "We needed a new bottle drying system that could cope with our increased production. As well as coping with our higher production levels, the ACI system is more effective than our previous systems because coding and labelling standards have improved significantly."

Find out more about ACI's blower-powered bottle drying system at www.aircontrolindustries.com.