Given where the brewery is located, we’ve
got a very limited amount of space, so we
have to be quite creative when it comes to
using it as effectively as possible.
“We had identified a new piece of
technology that we wanted to install to
allow us to brew a 0.5%-alcohol version
of our Ghost Ship Pale Ale, but we had
exhausted all available floorspace. However,
by upgrading the old palletiser to a more
compact automated solution, we figured
we could accommodate everything within
the existing brewery site. We actioned
this in early 2018 and approached FANUC
to design a robotic end-of-line loading
system.”
In order to meet the significant load
demands of handling metal barrels filled
with over 160 litres of beer, FANUC specified
its R-200iC/210L 6-axis palletising robot.
With a maximum payload of 210kg, it could
comfortably process the full casks at the
required rate of 250-300 barrels an hour, to
keep pace with the beer as it came out of
the filling line. With a compact footprint of
771mm x 610mm, and a reach of 3100mm,
it can easily operate within the confined
working environment of the brewery.
Crucially, the robot body is IP54 rated, to
protect it from the residual beer found
throughout the cask filling line.
However, the R-200iC/210L was not
Adnams’ first foray into robotics. Back in
2017, in response to the growing popularity
of keg beers, Fergus and his team decided
to expand Adnams’ keg programme. Up
until then all non-cask beer was sent away
for kegging, but the brewery wanted to
bring that process in-house at its main site
in central Southwold. This involved finding
space for conditioning tanks, as well as
filtration and kegging equipment. The final
piece of the puzzle was the addition of a
FANUC R-2000iC/165F robot within the
kegger, which was used to lift and stack the
newly-filled kegs. While this was on a much
smaller scale compared to the brewery’s
cask line, its success paved the way for the
much larger system which followed on the
cask filling line in 2018.
Following the finished installation of the
R-200iC/210L in 2018 and the FANUC
R-2000iC/165F in 2017, all of the brewery’s
cask and keg beers are now handled and
loaded by robots.
Fergus continues: “Compared to a manual
process, automation is much better.
Issue 39 PECM
65