s e cto r
cann i ng
Life in the fast lane When The Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation needed to upgrade the packaging facilities at its Shanhua Brewery, it turned to Krones for technology capable of handling up to 90,000 cans per hour.
competitiveness. By 2018, two glass and canning lines each, and one kegging line, had already been replaced. Moreover, only the best brands available worldwide for brewery equipment are being considered for new investments. Here, TTL is using machines from Krones in four of its bottling and canning lines, and was thus able to increase production efficiency and the quality of packaging yet
by tim sheahan
T
again.
High-speed line
he Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation (TTL) is one hundred years old, and its business lines cover the fields of tobacco, spirits, beer, and biotechnology. It operates a total of four breweries:
besides the Taipei Brewery, which was founded in 1919 and has in recent years been targeting the craft beer market, there are the Jhunan, Wurih and Shanhua Breweries. The latter three serve the markets in Taiwan’s north, centre and south, and supply the many beer-drinkers there with a highly diversified choice of top-quality,
A
mong all the newly erected lines, it is the canning line only just installed, for which Krones acted as the general contractor, that attracts a lot of
attention. It handles 90,000 cans per hour in the 0.33 and 0.5-litre sizes. The empty containers are first of all depalletised by a Pressant Universal 1A, and transported to the Volumetic VODM-C filler, which is accommodated in a cleanroom. Via a lengthy buffering section, the cans are passed to
sustainably produced beers. This strategy has made sure
a LinaFlex double-deck pasteuriser. After filling, heating
that TTL’s Taiwan Beers are still the market leaders.
and cool-down, a Checkmat inspector verifies that the fill
Back in 1973, TTL invested in the construction of a brewery, which was dimensioned for an annual capacity
level is correct. In addition, the cans pass through another three of
of 500,000 hectolitres and built in Shanhua, a municipality
these systems, in which shape, coding and leakproof
near Tainan in the south of Taiwan. The goal: to serve
integrity are checked, to fulfil the company’s stringent
demand in the rural districts of Yunlin, Jiayi and Nantou,
quality requirements. The next station is the packer.
and in the east of Taiwan as well. Then when beer consumption levels rose steadily, the
The Variopac Pro WTS-7 places the individual cans either in cartons or in four- or six-packs in over-top-open
company expanded the brewery twice, thus gradually
packs. The final stop is the Modulpal Pro 1AD. Its two
upping its production capacities to two million hectolitres.
columns ensure that the machine can keep pace with the
The Shanhua Plant likewise translated the group’s
line’s high output during palletising as well: while one of
diversification strategy into tangible reality, erecting a
them places the finished layers on the pallet, the other
factory for producing its EasyClean cleaning agents, for
inserts the cardboard layer pads.
which the antibacterial effect of hops derived from beer production is primarily used. Taiwan’s beer market has been opening up for some
“The new line is extremely efficient – it’s where our staff prefer working,” said brewery director Hsieh Chin Fu. They’re tasked primarily with monitoring the
years now, and since then numerous beer brands, both
production operation and topping up with cans, lids and
domestic and from abroad, have been competing with
cartons. The new line is currently TTL’s fastest and most
each other.
efficient – which means the company is well equipped for
Those responsible at the Shanhua Brewery decided to invest in a state-of-the-art automatic packaging line,
a future of maximised efficiency. “We are confident that we can stay market leader in
and to successively replace inefficient production lines
Taiwan with Taiwan Beer in the future as well,” added
requiring high staffing levels, so as to upgrade their
Hsieh Chin Fu.
62
October 2019
Brewers Journal