ACMI has installed a hi-tech canning line at Birra Castello brewery, located in the north-eastern part of Italy. The line has a nominal filling speed of 90,000 cans per hour and is very flexible. The line can handle 330ml and 500ml cans packed with the following configurations: Film only, film + carton pad, film + carton tray.

Depalletiser

On the Birra Castello line ACMI installed an innovative high infeed depalletiser for cans which reaches a speed of 110,000 cans per hour. The depalletiser is equipped with a new concept containment structure which guarantees maximum stability of the product during the entire working phase.

Furthermore, a new system has been introduced for handling material such as interlayers, top frames and pallets. This system offers substantial time saving during each cycle of depalletisation and layer transfer. Despite it being a high performing system the maintenance required is minimal.

Shrinkwrapper

The line is equipped with a single lane Fenix shrink wrapper/tray former with a production speed of up to 85 packs per minute. The machine is equipped with an automatic film change over system which does not require operator intervention in any way.

In a time lapse of approximately 10 seconds, the machine passes from the terminated spool reel to the new reel in a completely automatic manner. This implies great functioning autonomy, as the operator has the necessary time to substitute the terminated spool with a new spool reel without interfering with the productivity of the machine.

In addition, this automatic changeover system is housed in an ergonomic external box which allows the operator to act in all safety.

Palletiser

The high efficiency of the palletiser group is guaranteed by the Twisterbox layer formation system along with the Faster model high level infeed palletiser that can reach a production speed of 112,500 cans per hour. The Twisterbox installed at Birra Castello is a three module system, the fastest possible configuration, with new concentric closing carbon pliers that guarantee improved speed and agility in handling the product, flexibility of product selection and maximum delicacy when manipulating the product.

One of the main advantages of the Twisterbox system is represented by the format changeover operations that are commanded by means of a touch screen panel and do not require any type of mechanic intervention.

Pallet stretch wrapper

Another interesting innovation presented by ACMI is the hi-tech rotating ring pallet stretch wrapper Vortex model which mounts an electronic pre-stretching device capable of pre-stretching film to a value of 400% or more. Thanks to the electronic commanding of all of the parameters, this pre-stretching system may be programmed to adapt to the degree of film pre-stretching at each phase of wrapping, optimising the primary material with a cost saving benefit (-30% compared to previous models). The machine can also be equipped with an automatic pre-stretching change-over system, an anti-dust top cover device and a "waterproof" device. It can mount spools with a height of 500, 750 and 1000mm.

Conveyors

With over thirty years of experience, ACMI is capable of supplying high efficiency conveying systems with contained rates of consumption. Apart from the performing characteristics such as robustness, reliability, reduced maintenance, fast and easy format change overs, automatic change overs, all of which counter distinguish the ACMI products, it is interesting to point out the conveyor production and pre-assembly system.

In order to guarantee rapid installation times, ACMI pre-assembles all of the conveyors in its factory. Once they have been pre-assembled and optimised, the conveyors are then dismantled in modules and sent to the customer's factory. In this way, the ACMI installation technicians receive a product which has already been tested and does not require any further intervention or resetting at the customer's premises guaranteeing a clean, rapid and precise installation.