Standard-Knapp talks new products at the Craft Brewers Conference

Standard-Knapp is exhibiting at the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America in Washington, D.C., today. We stopped by the booth to talk to Mario Mazzotta, Standard-Knapp’s customer service manager of field engineering, about the company’s new products, which included news of a complete Retrofit Grid system and a variety of rugged and durable case packer change parts that allow for fast, easy changeover and increased line efficiency, including partitionless packaging (a growing craft trend).

Standard-Knapp also just released the 939EZ Versatron Case Packer, which provides proven and reliable case packing technology in an affordable package. The 939EZ Versatron is equipped with a variety of rugged and durable case packer change parts, all designed for safe, easy and consistent 15-minute changeover. Standard-Knapp’s patented Snap-in Grid technology makes changeover an easy, one-man operation for a variety of product sizes. Product riding strips are made of extremely durable material and are fitted with unique slide-in design for automatic alignment. Lightweight and strong lane guide spacers ensure the perfect width for each product. The Standard-Knapp changeover cart provides sturdy, mobile storage for easy to identify, color-coded changeover parts. The cart holds two complete sets of change parts and offers quick and easy access for fast changeover. Optional equipment and features include a pneumatically-controlled flap opener for RSC cases and a PanelView 1000 plus graphically-driven human machine interface (HMI).

We sat down with Mazzotta and asked him a few questions — specifically what craft brewers should consider when buying a packaging machine. Take it away, Mazzotta.

“You have to think of the packing process as a whole. If partitionless is the trend you’re looking to start utilizing, make sure you have a machine that’s going to be robust enough to do it. Produce the quality product you want, so there’s zero breakage. Have a machine that can actually recover from faults quickly. A Standard-Knapp machine is something that is very easy to change over in a few minutes. The HMI screens are very intuitive, so you can recover from faults very, very quickly. It’ll tell the operator where to go on the machine and what to look for. And it’ll take you to the correct screen to start the process again very quickly, so the meantime for recovery is very, very strong.

“Look for stainless steel construction. Machines should be able to run 24/7, 365 days a year. Your machine should be built to last. So those are some of the things that people should consider when looking for a packaging machine. Today, we cover the big domestic breweries — Anheuser Busch and Coors all have our machinery. A lot of distilleries have our machinery — like Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. With the influx of craft brewers out there and the trend to go into craft brew, we’ve received three orders this year. Those three are Boulevard Brewing Co., Southern Tier Brewing Co. and Deschutes Brewery.”