Filling wine: A case for Mecafill VKPV-CF

Since early 2007, a 32-valve Mecafill VKPV-CF wine filler has been bottling the estate’s products at Hardy Wines in Adelaide, Australia, in the 0.7-litre and 1.5-litre magnum sizes. The filler, rated at 6,000 bph, is also able to handle carbonated wines including red sparkling wines up to 12 degrees C with no loss of speed. It is synchronised with a single-channel Variojet rinser that provides the bottles optimally prepared for the filling process.
The filling valve, featuring a swirl insert instead of a spreader, permits a significantly more stable product flow with almost no foaming at all. The filling valve features a servomotorised actuator for vent tube adjustment and the magnetic coupling, which provides sterile separation between the product compartment and its surroundings. Since the vent tube can be adjusted during actual filling, the machine is able to operate with a smaller vertical bottle movement, which in turn means the centring bell rodding and the bell lifting cam can be dispensed with. Reducing these components to a compactly dimensioned centring bell has perceptibly improved accessibility and ease of cleaning in the bottle area. Direct mounting of the snifting, vacuum, correction, dry-pressurisation and return-air valves means the “one-piece” valve assembly can be swiftly replaced.