08/10/2009
Leading Lancashire brewer, Daniel Thwaites, has invested in a new £700k bottling line, recently launched it aims to meet rising demand for bottled beer, the line will double output from 12,000 to 24,000 Barrels a year.
The new filler was manufactured by Eurostar of Italy and installed by Carbonation Techniques Ltd from Telford. The innovative new multi-pack machine is capable of producing Tray and Shrink or folded card and was manufactured by Tondelli of Italy and installed by their own technicians. New conveyors and controls to link it all together were provided by Fastpack Engineering of Burton – on – Trent.
The bottling line features a 20 head bottle rinser, 28 filling heads and a 6 head crowner. It is capable of filling a range of bottles from nips (170ml) to 750 ml at up to 4,200 bottles per hour.
The filling process involves double evacuation to remove oxygen and counter pressure filling. Bottles are now labelled before the filler to ensure a good application and then packed into trays and shrink-wrapped or put into wraparound cartons on the Tondelli Packer. The packing machine is configured to produce 8, 12, 24 packs but other options are available.
Ian Bearpark, Production Director at Daniel Thwaites said: “Over the last 3-4 years, our own bottle sales have grown by over 100%. This considerable rise has happened since the introduction of our own bespoke bottle, which has enabled our Sales team to tap into new markets. As a result of this steady growth we had run out of capacity on the previous line. In the space we had available in the brewery we've installed the biggest filler we possibly could - doubling our output.”
He continues: “The line operates on a 2-shift pattern and has resulted in 3 additional permanent positions which were taken up by employees from the brewery as part of the company’s restructuring plan. We have retained our old packaging machine so we can continue to hand feed it with the different bottles that make up our mixed Celebration Ales packs. The installation went extremely smoothly and we were producing beer ahead of schedule. From placing orders to running it took 7 months and we have been delighted with the progress so far.”