The Craftmate Can Filler from Krones

Christian Bockisch

KRONES AG

VGS BABU

Head Sales-KRONES India Pvt Ltd

KRONES has developed the Craftmate can filler with a new pitch circle diameter of 1,080 millimetres, for the small output range of 12,000 cans an hour with reference to the 16-oz can.

No compromises in terms of filling quality

Since any craft brewery’s focus is on premium beers, the requirements posed for oxygen pick-up, filling accuracy, CO2 consumption and hygiene are stringent. So when it comes to the guaranteed figures for all of these, the new Craftmate can filler is fully the equal of its“big brothers”.

It should be noted, however, that the Craftmate is not “just” a small modularised can filler – no, it has been developed as a stand-alone machine in its own right. In some points, the filler’s design has been deliberately kept simpler than that of the KRONES can fillers clients are familiar with. For example, the CIP cups are inserted by hand before cleaning. An automatic external foam-cleaning feature or a hot water flushing unit can be integrated as optional extras. During the development work, care was also taken to ensure that filler and seamer can be shipped in a sea container, so as to keep the transport costs down. This means that the first-time user receives an affordable machine in the field-proven KRONES quality right from the start, plus the service support that comes with it.

Valves pressed on without a lifting cam

A premiere for can fillers: thanks to its innovative technology, the filler can for the first time be operated without lifting cams. This reduces the number of components, and enhances the machine’s accessibility. The filler is in open design and thus easy to clean as well. The cleaning media run down the sloping tabletop into a defined drain and thus cannot collect in puddles. From the tabletop, the filler is easily accessible for maintenance work.

The manifold can be removed from above for maintenance purposes.

Ultra-compact and flexible

The Craftmate can filler, plus the valve rack and the seamer, altogether have a very small footprint, with the electronic component cabinet being directly connected in a space-saving configuration. The latter also accommodates the pneumatic control system for the compact-design valve rack, which, together with the product tank, is located directly behind the filler, with the seamer right next to it, which is electronically block-synchronised by means of servo technology.

The newly developed can filler for craft beer has been conceived as a volumetric machine with 24 filling valves. Three pneumatic diaphragms each serve for
controlling the filling process. The generously dimensioned machine doors make for optimum access to the filler room, and a KRONES touch-screen with operator prompting ensures ultra-simple operation.

When this machine was being developed, special attention was paid to a high degree of flexibility, enabling it to cope with the various products and formats encountered in a craft brewery. It has been dimensioned for filling cans in the 211/202 standard format but can also be optionally equipped for the 204/202 to 300/209 formats. Its output will depend on the can volume and the product parameters involved.

Numerous advantages for users

To sum up: the new Craftmate can filler is a machine “out of the box” and scores highly in terms of the versatile filling options it offers its users. For any further-reaching requirements in higher output ranges, clients can choose their model from KRONES’ familiar can filler portfolio.