Cask Global Canning Solutions — the inventors of micro-canning equipment for craft brewers — has released a uniquely versatile canning line. Cask’s new Micro-Automated Canning System (mACS) packages both carbonated and uncarbonated beverages. The mACS also fills cans of varying heights and diameters, from 5.5 ounces (163 mL) to 19.2 ounces (568 mL) in volume, and the changeover between cans can be done in less than 30 minutes.
“The mACS gives brewers the ability to create new revenue streams and beverages,” said Cask Founder Peter Love. “They can quickly shift to new can sizes for current products, or jump from beer and cider to soft drinks and uncarbonated beverages such as cold brew coffee, wine and energy drinks.”
Dead Armadillo Craft Brewing (Tulsa, Okla.) is now using the mACS to can its beer and a new product.
“When you add a liquid nitrogen doser to the mACS, you can use it to can coffee,” said Todd Phillips, Dead Armadillo’s director of operations. “So, after many months of R&D, we’re entering the nitro cold-brewed coffee market with some friends at a local coffee roaster. It’s a brave new world for us that wouldn’t have been possible without Cask.”
“The mACS supports a larger array of can sizes than any line we have ever seen,” Phillips adds, “and we can change from can sizes, lid formats, and product types with minimal effort.”
The mACS has electric cam-driven seamers, three CO2 pre-purge heads, three fill heads and a post-fill rinser and dryer. It measures just 7 by 2.5 ft and has a very small footprint of 17.5 sq ft. It has a recipe memory feature that automatically sets the fill settings for speedy transition between different beverages.
The mACS conveyor belt can feeder (as found on Cask’s larger ACS machine) allows for adding such automated pre- and post-packaging components as a depalletizer, inline date coder, nitrogen doser, pressure-sensitive labeler, shrink sleever and other components.
“Since it can be equipped with an array of automated components, the mACS also enables our customers to scale up the automation of their canning process as they grow and diversify,” Love said.
The machine’s unique filler technology combines fill-level sensors with proprietary foam-control valves. Those features produce filled cans with extremely low dissolved oxygen pickup of just five to 20 parts per billion — better or comparable to large-scale and much more expensive canning and bottling lines.
The mACS fills 20+ cans per minute and 50+ cases per hour with just one operator.
Marty Jones is longtime evangelist, publicist and status quo smasher for craft beer. His creative ideas, promo efforts and questionable jokes have played a key role in the success of some of the top beer endeavors in Colorado and the United States. Learn about his beery efforts at www.martyjones.com.
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