Cheryl Miller posted on April 30, 2019 14:34
Karben4 Brewery Teams Up with Multi-Conveyor
doubles production without adding square footage!
(Winneconne, WI) - Multi-Conveyor recently teamed up with Karben4 Brewery to assist with equipment upgrades to expand their processing to both bottles and cans.
The Challenge: 
How to add a new depalletizer and can filler/sealer into the existing layout without having to buy a bigger building. Major points to consider were:
- Where would the canning line go?
- How do they get the cans into the canner?
- How do they get the cans off for packaging?
- Multiple product sizes - one bottle size but several can sizes
- Redo the labeling and pack-off station
The Solution:
Multi-Conveyor designed, built and installed a new stainless-steel, wash down table-top conveyor line that would pick up empties after the rinser and convey them to either the existing bottler or to the new canning machine and then bring them together before the existing hand pack area.
Click on the image/video link below to listen as Karben4's Ryan Koga, Brewmaster & Co-Owner, explains, ..."Bottom line, we added more equipment in the same space and doubled our functionality in the same square footage ... we just wouldn't have gotten there without Multi-Conveyor."
Bottles now side transfer from the rinser and side transfer again onto the existing filler. The discharge end will rest on an existing filler deck, so Multi-Conveyor engineered the frames with minimal depth.
A new canning section called for empty cans to be single filed and side transfer to feed into a rinser, the onto the existing filler. Full cans then discharge and 90 degree transfer onto a new, portable transport conveyor section (aka "mobile bridge) that reintroduces the cans to the main flow upstream of the labeler onto the pack-off station. The mobile bridge is rolled into and out of position only when canning production is in full force.
Quotes directly from Ryan Koga, Brewmaster/Owner, Karben4:
“Every team member at Multi-Conveyor took it as a personal challenge. I was really blown away by that because that's usually how I react ... and that means a lot to me.” ~ R. Koga, Karben4
“A couple of things I really appreciated during the design and fabrication side, and also the installation process was ... I never got any hesitation. All I ever got was, 'Can you just even do a little tiny hand sketch and send it to us so we (Multi-Conveyor) get an idea of what you want. We'll make it happen.' And that happened more than once.” ~ R. Koga, Karben4
“Even on a small line there was a lot of details when you're integrating into old equipment. No hesitation, great execution - there wasn't any push-back, there wasn't any hesitation, there was only solutions, solutions, solutions.” ~ R. Koga, Karben4
“As far as I'm concerned, as we grow, we're going back to Multi-Conveyor every time.” ~ R. Koga, Karben4
Need conveyors for your brewery? From simple hand-pack filling lines to fully automated and integrated systems, we do it all. Visit our beer conveyors page. Then call us at 1-800-236-7960. Multi-Conveyor is a proud Supplier Member of the Craft Brewers Association.