Layout Consultation Saves Global Beverage Bottler $1.3 Million in Single-Line Savings

Customer Objectives

A major beverage bottler was looking to invest in a new high-speed line for their 100% recyclable canned product with lightweight packaging in their existing plant. The bottler needed the line to be able to achieve 2,000 cans per minute with minimal investment and maintenance costs.

To achieve these goals with a traditional layout and technologies, the bottler would have needed to install a second tray packer and adjacent equipment and conveyors. This solution would have drastically increased their footprint, equipment, and conveyor needs, resulting in a greater upfront investment and higher future maintenance costs.

Intralox Execution

Having had success with a previous Intralox solution for a similar application, the bottler understood the value of Intralox’s products and services. The bottler’s chosen system integrator reached out to Intralox early in the project process for layout consulting. Working together, Intralox and the integrator provided the bottler with a 2D AutoCAD drawing and 3D simulations that illustrated layout and line capabilities, accumulation capabilities, and the solution’s impact on line efficiency.

Intralox’s solution included two Activated Roller Belt (ARB) Case Turner Rejects S7050, an ARB Switch S7050, Series 1000 belting, and Series 2300 Flush Grid Nose-Roller Tight Turning belting. Intralox layout optimization experts used the 3D simulations to show how the ARB Switch S7050 ensures full lanes, resulting in a highly efficient tray packer. As a result, upstream from the tray packer can be more efficient, the infeed and outfeed are balanced, and the bottler can experience energy savings without the tray packer needing to start and stop repeatedly.

Results

The partnership fostered between the bottler, system integrator, and Intralox layout optimization experts allowed for a clear overview of the proposed alternative solution and benefits. The Intralox solution delivered all the bottler’s conveyance and throughput needs in a simplified, efficient layout with only one tray packer. By eliminating unnecessary equipment and conveyors, the bottler saved $1,300,000 in total equipment savings. As a result, 3,950 sq ft (367 sq m) in floor space was saved. The bottler plans to install the equipment and belting to achieve this line layout, as well as similar layouts in the future.

A layout comparison shows the footprint and equipment savings enabled by the Intralox system compared to if the bottler had used traditional technologies.