Posted to News on 9th Apr 2009, 00:00
Size is not an issue
Air Control Industries (ACI) can offer bottle and can drying systems to suit all sizes of filling operations and to meet specific requirements. That includes specially engineered solutions for large international companies down to low-cost ones appropriate for the purpose and budget of micro-breweries.
A speciality of Bitburger Braugruppe is the brewing of non-pasteurised Pils beer and this calls for the highest hygiene standards. One precaution the company takes to achieve these standards is to minimise the presence of crevices and projections on machinery involved on the production line that could serve as catchment zones and create possible contamination risks. ACI has supplied a bottle drying system to Bitburger built specially to comply with these high standards.
Essentially, the bottle dryer is one of ACI's low-noise, high through-put units that has been adapted to meet these demanding hygiene requirements. All meeting surfaces which are normally spot welded or bolted together have seamless welded joins in order to facilitate cleaning and eliminate bacteria build up. There is also a special drainage facility for directing moisture to appropriate outlets. In addition, the housing for the blower (ACI's EP10) that delivers the air is mounted on top of the dryer instead of underneath. This is to permit easy cleaning under the dryer.
Although this ACI drier is a low noise unit it does not contain any acoustic foam, which could absorb moisture and breed germs. Instead, the machine is equipped with noise baffles at both the entry and exit points. Noise levels are just below 85 dBA.
According to Dr Johannes Hankes, department manager, the ACI bottle dryer is installed on a line that replaces two previous ones and handles a throughput of 50,000 bottles/hr. He also said that the dryer provided a cost-effective solution compared to the options considered, which included manufacturing one in-house, as the previous machines had been. Currently, the bottles passing through the ACI dryer are standard 330ml ones, but it is expected other sizes will be produced on the line.
The drying function is achieved by high volumes of air being delivered at close proximity to the bottles via the company's unique 'JetPlate' plenums and a pair of 'AirKnives' all housed in a stainless steel cabinet. The unit has a footprint of just 990 x 1680mm with an overall height of 2070mm.
In addition to its Pils beer, Bitburger Braugruppe produces beers blended with various soft drinks (such as lemon and coke), light beer (Sun) and alcohol free beer (Drive).
AirKnives blow away labelling problems
Faced with increasing demand - from home and overseas - the award winning microbrewery, O'Hanlon's Brewery of Devon needed to increase output. Production of the company's beers was not a problem but getting the product out of the door was. The inhibiting factor was O'Hanlon's bottling/labelling operation. Condensation caused delays because frequently filled bottles had to be left to dry before labels could be applied. This limited production to around 2700 bottles/day.
Another issue arising from condensation and exacerbating time delays was double handling. Bottles once filled were sometimes removed from the filling/labelling line and then reintroduced when dry for labelling. However, the problems caused by condensation are no longer an issue for O'Hanlon's Brewery. They have been eliminated following the installation of a pair of ACI's 'AirKnives'.
"ACI's AirKnives do exactly what it says on the tin - they dry the bottles!" commented Liz O'Hanlon, Director. "They are easy to install, easy to operate and simple to maintain, which is important for a small brewery like ours."
