From:Packaging News

KHS and Schubert have combined to offer beverage producers a complete package to fill and pack their products.

Swiss brewery Schützengarten has implemented a line which can process many different bottle and final-package formats – while taking up little space.

The Swiss brewery ordered an unpacking/packing unit, a binder/unscrambler and a combined palletizer/depalletizer, complete with a new glass depalletizer.

A pallet wrapper, a crate washing system and an automated plastic crate buffer storage magazine are also part of the complete installation.

The new system achieves an output of 25,000 to 35,000 bottles per hour. In addition to six different plastic crates for the reusable bottles, Schützengarten packs various carton formats with quantities of six to eighteen bottles on the new system.

Robots transport the KHS packer and the Schubert modules. The Transmodul uses a connector to move into the KHS packaging machine.

Lutz Müller, KHS sales manager for Switzerland, said: “The block formation from KHS and Schubert components makes long transfer systems and separate infeed and outfeed sections redundant. This reduces maintenance, wear and tear, and energy consumption. Furthermore, this compact installation requires only one operator.”

Thanks to this block packaging solution, Schützengarten can now use the filling capacity to its fullest extent, even in a tight space. This results in an almost doubled line capacity compared with the previously used packaging solution. The packaging line can now package crates, and soon it will also be able to handle baskets, clusters and other carton-packed variants.