Feature Machine Building & Frameworks Enhancing brewery operations
Drives and automation equipment from Lenze, ranging from controllers to efficient geared motors, have helped to increase the efficiency of operations at a new cask racking plant at St. Austell Brewery
O
pened in 2012 as a turnkey installation supplied by brew- ery design specialist Microdat, the new cask racking plant at St. Austell Brewery can produce 300 firkins (nine gallon casks) per hour, and the increased efficiency provided by the racking plant allows the brew- ery to switch from two-shift to one- shift operation and still have two times the capacity.
Leeds-based Microdat are a UK leader for brewery keg and cask handling sys- tems. With 25 years experience in machinery such as washers, fillers, cap- pers, weighing and cask handling equipment, they have more recently identified brewery design as a target market. Managing director Steve Midgley commented, “Our strong growth in recent years is a result of bringing our brewery expertise into the area of complete plants.” One such application is at St. Austell Brewery.
The process
The racking plant is a production line that takes in empty casks, cleans and fills them and then prepares them for despatch. Incoming casks will have been returned from pubs. They are fed into a process called deshiving where the old plugs are removed, then the casks are washed and dried. The fill- ing process, known as racking, uses Microdat peristaltic pumps driven by geared motors.
The full casks are then sealed and transported ready for despatch. Microdat also supplied a CIP (Cleaning in Place) system which can automatically clean the pipes and tanks with hot detergents. The level of
Automation MARCH 2013 29
Above: the cask washer at St Austell Brewery
automation is such that only three operators are required to achieve a production level of 2,700 gallons per hour. This is equivalent to more than the capacity of an Olympic sized swimming pool every month. Lenze power transmission equip- ment for drives and automation is used throughout the plant. The heart of the automation system is a network of five Lenze controllers, type 3200C, that are linked by Ethernet. One controller looks after each stage of the process. The compact controller design is DIN- rail mounted and handles PLC logic to IEC 61131-3 languages, motion control for the geared motors plus a link for external visualisation - options are a DVI-D port or Ethernet that was pre- ferred in this case.
Plugged into the side of the 3200C controller are I/O modules from the Lenze System 1000. Fast data transfer is achieved through an integrated backplane that allows a precise time stamp of 1µs. A two part design of the I/O modules allows the electron- ics to be unplugged without disturb- ing the wiring. Handling is made even easier by clear labelling, a LED for each channel and an integrated shield connection. CANopen, Ethernet/IP, PROFIBUS, PROFINET, POWERLINK and EtherCAT connections are available for the drives which are frequency inverters of the Lenze 8400 series. EtherCAT was chosen because it is fast and deterministic. The inverters have the option of Safe Torque Off so opera- tors can perform work on the plant
Right: filling pumps for beer casks at St Austell Brewery
such as cleaning without the need to power everything down. A variety of Lenze geared motors are used. In the case of the racking pumps, which have a high duty and need to deliver a pre- cise volume, type GKR bevel gear- boxes were used. These have 96% efficiency, low backlash and are virtu- ally wear-free.
The new cask racking plant was opened in October 2012 by broad- caster Nigel Barden assisted by head brewer Roger Ryman. Microdat had installed VNC (Virtual Network Computing) which allows remote con- trol of mouse and keyboard with return relay of screen updates. As VNC is platform independent, Nigel Barden was able to start the plant on an iPad.
Summary
James Staughton, managing director of St. Austell Brewery concluded, “The opening of the new cask operation plant represents a significant milestone in our company’s 160 year history and it brings the total investment in our brewing and bottling facilities to almost £6m in just seven years. The opening of the cask operation plant is a bold move, but will mean we will be able to consis- tently meet the demand for our range of award winning ales now and in the years to come.’’ It is notable that the Microdat turnkey installation worked from day one, taking only six firkins before full production was achieved.
Lenze
www.lenze.co.uk T: 01234 753 227
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