Craftmate

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Hall 7A / 7A-520

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The Krones Craftmate can filler

The craft brewers’ new friend

In recent years, the number of craft breweries worldwide has soared. In North America, this segment is booming. Some of these new breweries are meanwhile also investing in bottling and canning lines of their own, with beer in cans playing a major role here. These developments are the reason for expanding Krones’ portfolio of fillers to include a craft beer can filler for the low output range. The Craftmate is a modularised volumetric model with 24 filling valves, and as a stand-alone machine in its own right constitutes a welcome addition to Krones’ range of kit. The pitch circle diameter is 1,080 millimetres. It is suitable for both small breweries and craft breweries.

The Craftmate scores highly in terms of high flexibility for its users. The filler has been designed for filling cans in the standard 211/202 format, but can also be optionally equipped to handle the 204/202 to 300/209 formats. Depending on the can volume and product parameters involved, the machine’s output lies between 6,000 and 18,000 cans per hour.

This new model has in some points been deliberately designed for a simpler construction than the can fillers produced by Krones hitherto. When it’s cleaned, for example, the CIP cups are inserted manually, and an automatic external foam-cleaning feature or hot-water gush-type jetting can be integrated as options.

Thanks to its innovative engineering, a filler can now for the first time be operated without a lifting cam, thus reducing the number of components and facilitating access to the machine. The filler is in open design and thus easy to clean as well. The cleaning media run down the sloping table-top into a defined drain and thus cannot collect in puddles.

The new can filler makes no compromises when it comes to the stringent requirements for oxygen pick-up, filling accuracy, CO2 consumption and hygiene. The Craftmate is here fully the equal of its high-speed counterparts. The client receives a machine in field-proven Krones quality, backed up by the associated service support.

In order to minimise the transportation costs, the development people at Krones have also made sure that the Craftmate, together with the seamer, can be shipped in a sea container. The user thus receives a machine that is “out of the box” for first-time brewers. For more extensive requirements in the higher output range, the familiar Krones can fillers from the existing families are available.

Eight craft breweries have already ordered a Craftmate from Krones, three of them in the USA, two in Canada and three in Europe.

Synonymous with holistic systems engineering: Krones

For machines, lines and complete factories – Krones, the one-stop shop

The Krones Group, headquartered in Neutraubling, Germany, plans, develops and manufactures machines and complete lines for the fields of process, filling and packaging technology. Its product portfolio is rounded off by information technology, factory planning and products from Krones’ subsidiaries as intralogistics, valve production etc. Every day, millions of bottles, cans, and special-shaped containers are handled on lines from Krones, particularly in breweries, the soft-drinks sector and at producers of still or sparkling wines and spirits, but also in the food and luxury-goods industries, plus the chemical, cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors.

Since being founded in 1951, Krones has become far more than a traditional-style machinery and line manufacturer: it has evolved into an all-round vendor for its clients. Mechanical engineering, line expertise, process engineering, microbiology and information technology have here been harmoniously integrated for optimum synergies. Nowadays, Krones is synonymous with holistic systems engineering.

Krones’ success is based on some few but crucial strategies: specialised knowledge of mechanical engineering and the customer sectors involved, a technical lead over its competitors driven by continuingly high expenditure on research and development, production facilities featuring state-of-the-art equipment operating to the most stringent of quality standards, backed up by worldwide 24/7 service support, and most especially by the skills of its highly motivated staff. More than 3,730 full and utility patents bear witness to the company’s innovative potential.

Worldwide, Krones employs 12,756 people. Approximately 90 per cent of its products are sold abroad. Consolidated sales in 2014 totalled 2.953 billion euros. The group includes not only Krones AG (M-DAX), but also more than 80 sales and service companies.

Krones’ product portfolio covers the following fields: