Conveyor technology at GWF Kitzingen – coordinated to perfection

With a new combined line for Bocksbeutel and cylindrical bottles, the winegrowers’ cooperative Franken (GWF) in Kitzingen has modernised its bottling operations. The line is rated at 11,500 bph, and can handle the 0.75-l,or 0.25-l Bocksbeutel bottle, or 1.0-l or 0.75-l Bordeaux bottles.
The special thing about this line is that it can handle both Bocksbeutel and cylindrical bottles; the change-over time is a mere 75 minutes. In order to accommodate the Bocksbeutel containers, two single-track Accutables are installed as a buffer table. For implementing the various packing concepts, the bottles are distributed into lanes downstream of the labeller by the Hedgehog linear gate and passed to the packer.
When handling the Bocksbeutel bottles, speed matching between the individual belts of the SynCo container conveyors and correct adjustment of the relevant guide rails are of crucial importance for proper functioning of the line. This is particularly manifest on the mass transport section downstream of the sweep-off depalletiser and at SynCo Inliner container infeed upstream of the filler. The sizeable tolerances of several millimetres due to different glass manufactures being used, plus the divergent friction values due to disparate surface finishes from different producers, have led to highly disparate behaviour of the various glass categories on the line for identical bottle geometries.