Closer maintenance simplified

An important brewery discovered after the installation of a HEUFT sonic, for the detection of leaking bottles after the labeller, that a considerable number of bottles were not being correctly closed.

The checks and adjustments to the closer heads that followed did not produce a satisfactory result. An O2 detection, to locate the source of the fault, was installed in the outfeed area of the filler block on the recommendation of the HEUFT company.

This detection is used to find air bubbles in the headspace of a bottle by analysing the acoustic signal of the lid after electromagnetic excitation. This signal also provides information on how much force was used to apply the crown cork. Individual statistics are carried out for each closer head so that it is also possible to locate intermittent closer heads. The integrated evaluation software ascertains which closer heads display the greatest deviation from the mean value. After adjusting/repairing the heads the success of the maintenance work can be checked, even after a short production time, with the help of the graphic charts.

After the installation of the device a meeting was arranged on site between the technicians from the closer manufacturer and the HEUFT comapny. The result was astonishing. The closer heads were repaired in an extremely short time on the basis of the precise localization procedure. If the subsequent test showed that a large deviation from the nominal value still existed, specific repairs could be carried out at the relevant position.

The cost-saving for the brewery was vast. Not only were maintenance costs and downtimes reduced due to the fast, efficient maintenance of the closer but the number of leaking bottles was also significantly decreased. The number of rejections at the leakage check decreased by more than 50%.