Filling capacities of more than 100,000 units/hr are not uncommon in beverage can lines. With the right equipment for conveying, marking and in-line inspection of the practical containers even before filling, even more is possible. At speeds of over 120,000 cans/hr, however, the performance limit is reached. By then, at the latest, conventional solutions no longer succeed in supplying the filling machine for full productivity in one lane, but only in two – with corresponding additional requirements for aggregates, components, space, energy and costs.
Beverage can fillers who want to save space and conserve resources must therefore make do with a lower output. The remedy is now a newly developed compact all-in-one solution for which three experienced suppliers have pooled their competences to enable this target group, too, to achieve a significantly higher output in the same time.
Without an additional lane, the filler can be continuously and harmoniously supplied with fault-free, permanently marked empty cans even when the line speed exceeds 120,000 units to be filled per hour. The clever combination of vacuum transport systems from H.F. Meyer, laser coding from Domino, and empty can inspection from Heuft achieves this using only one infeed lane.
While the Heuft canLine systems carry out the top-down inspection of each empty can in order to detect all the faults which are critical for productivity and product quality, from indentations in the flanged rim of the neck finish to damage and contamination in the sensitive shoulder area directly underneath to dented or contaminated inner walls and foreign objects on the base, the HYVAC vacuum conveyor from H.F. Meyer transports them, safely vacuumed, close together at high speed along the detection stations.
For reliable high-speed coding with the Domino F720i fibre laser, they are then transported over the HYTRANS vacuum bridge from H. F. Meyer in such a stable manner that best-before dates and other information can be applied pin-sharp and permanently to the outside of the can base. An intelligent color sensor camera from Heuft reads them back and verifies the contents in the same process. The fact that the coding takes place before the filler instead of after the pasteurizer as is usually the case saves the time-consuming double turning of full cans.
The Heuft pusher consistently rejects all empty cans that are identified as faulty so that only faultless ones reach the filling machine. They can be securely filled and closed and are clearly labelled so that they are transported there via only one lane. The fact that this now works reliably even with line performances of more than 120,000 beverage cans to be filled is the result of the successful cooperation between the three high-performance partners.
The joint all-in-one solution will soon be available to anyone who wants to achieve safe handling, clear marking, precise in-line inspection and fault-free beverage can filling at top speed in a very confined space without incurring escalating costs.
