Inspection technology for bottling spirits

The Swedish vodka producer Absolut uses monitoring and inspection technology from Krones for is vodka bottling operations:

• The Linatronic 735 M2 empty-bottle inspector monitors the neck finish, the thread and the bottle’s interior for foreign substances. The system detects even the tiniest chips in the vicinity of the sealing surface, plus scuffing and cracks in the glass. For full-thread inspection, the flight is imaged in a spiral form. Detection of residual liquids is based on a broad-band infra-red system and a high-frequency system.
• The rotary Checkmat 731 inspector uses either camera or sensor technology to detect lettering, label position, date-coding and the barcode. Besides the classical cold-glue and wrap-around labels, the machine also monitors sleeves, pressure-sensitive labels or reflecting foils.

Jinro Ltd., Korea, is one of the world’s biggest producers of spirits. For two production facilities, Krones has installed two bottling lines, each rated at 60,000 bph. The empty bottles are monitored by a Toptronic 719-M2 empty-bottle inspector:

• The Toptronic – a rotary machine – scores in terms of absolutely reliable container guidance, and features as its standard inspection units monitoring capabilities for base, sealing-surface and residual-liquid inspection. In addition, inspection units can be retrofitted for side-wall, inside-wall. thread, lateral-neck-finish and foreign-container monitoring.

The world’s fastest whisky bottling line is currently running at Diageo’s Shieldhall bottling plant in Glasgow, Scotland. Installed by Krones as a turnkey job, the line is rated at 36,000 bph. It features a Linatronic FBI full-bottle inspector:

• The linear construction of the Linatronic enable the inspection units concerned to be chosen at will. Both settled and suspended foreign bodies can be detected, with options for base inspection, fill-level/closure monitoring and a check on the closure’s actual design.