Bottling automation ideas

[dzlater]

Theory of Operation

1. Use Proximity Sensors to stop conveyor when bottles are aligned under Bottling wands.
2. Air Lifts then lift conveyor table up to pre-determined height to allow bottling wands to begin dispensing beer
3. A set of contacts placed on a determined Height of one of the bottling wandswould give continuity when the beer reaches that level. These contacts closing will trigger the conveyor to begin lowering via the airlifts, stopping the flow of beer.
4. Another Proximity Sensor will determine when the conveyor is “parked” at it’s low position. Beginning the conveyor to cycle in the next 4 empty bottles and repeat the process.
5. You would need some sort of bottle catcher that would allow the bottles to slide to a capping area (manual station or another automated machine) to catch the full bottles. Or manually unload the while the next four are filling.

*There are “cups” on the conveyor that hold bottles for consistent alignment.
*All tubing from bottling bucket to manifold and manifold to bottling wands is solid tubing as to not allow any flexing.
*PLC Controlled
* This design would require consistency in bottles. ie All SA's, All Sierra Nevadas, ect


Most of this could be made from hardware store/locally available stuff.
A simple DC motor to turn conveyor
Rocker switches from radio shack
You supply the PLC or Arduino or whatever you have from control

I'll like to make this now just to see if I can........

My thought was similar but not quite as automated. ( I have no clue what a proximity sensor is )
Instead of a conveyor belt just have a tray set in a track that you could manually manually slide under the bottling wand manifold.
Lower the wands instead of raising the bottles, and fill. The slide rack of full bottles under a series if bench cappers that have their handles linked together. Then using an actuator or manually cap all the bottles at once. Does that make any sense ?

 

[Cold_Steel]

I have been trying to figure this out myself. I am building a nano brewery and i have 240 belguim bottles to fill (in theory for now). So what i came up with is the illustation above except its an arm you pull down that has 6 tips on it. Once filled you push the bottles down to the corking station where you pull down 1 arm that has 6 corkers. Then they are moved down again to be labeled. I imagine this to be a 3 man operation. However, all theory here.

 

[ClaudiusB]

dzlater wrote:
Instead of a conveyor belt just have a tray set in a track that you could manually manually slide under the bottling wand manifold.
Lower the wands instead of raising the bottles, and fill. The slide rack of full bottles under a series if bench cappers that have their handles linked together. Then using an actuator or manually cap all the bottles at once. Does that make any sense ?

My homemade pneumatic capper (year 1880 ) has a sliding base, similar concept.
At the left position

At the right position

I have no clue what a proximity sensor is

A sensor which can detect metallic objects at close proximity, inductive type.
Capacitive types can detect also non metallic objects, like bottles.

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

 

[ftblhead]

My bottling system works great. I open up my dishwasher which has all the freshly cleaned bottles sitting on the prongs, and pull up a chair. On the counter above the dishwasher I have my bottling bucket with the tubing and bottling wand attached. I pick up a bottle, fill it to the rim, pull out the wand, and set the bottle down on the end of the open dishwasher door. If SWMBO is around, she loves to use the capper. If not, I cap them when I have a bunch and then go back to filling. With SWMBO its less than 30 minutes, alone maybe 45. Best part is, any beer dripping/spilling during the process ends up on the dishwasher door. No cleanup. I recommend this system (including a helpful SWMBO if you can find one). Good luck.

Pretty much exactly what I do. If SWMBO helps, which is pretty much every time, I can be done in 30 minutes easily.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I guess I was thinking the conveyor might be something continuous, with an off-feed; and raising/lowering would have to take that into consideration, where dropping the manifold instead would allow the conveyor feed and off ramp to be more continuous...
your build. it's all good.

If the conveyor was continuous while filling regardless of what was lifting the bottles would be moving away from the fill nozzles unless they were moving as well, unless you put a hard stop to hold the bottle pallet in place and let the conveyor slide under the pallet, then release the hard stop when ready to transport bottles to next station. This would be an easy solution and be easier on your motors if in a constant operation environment. But I'd rather move the mechanical section then the section with liquid filled hoses that could eventually come loose from constant flexing. But either way.

My thought was similar but not quite as automated. ( I have no clue what a proximity sensor is )
Instead of a conveyor belt just have a tray set in a track that you could manually manually slide under the bottling wand manifold.
Lower the wands instead of raising the bottles, and fill. The slide rack of full bottles under a series if bench cappers that have their handles linked together. Then using an actuator or manually cap all the bottles at once. Does that make any sense ?

But then you have to do something! I'd prefer to build something cool, then just push a button.

My homemade pneumatic capper (year 1880 ) has a sliding base, similar concept.
At the left position

At the right position

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

That's cool. any pics of the whole system in action?

 

[dpalme]

I'm new here and new to beer making, but I'm also a gadget guy, love toys and the thought of having my own bottling line is like way too cool!

But in the meantime, I picked up 4 corney kegs for free including a 20b co2 tank and I'm looking forward to kegging some in the next few weeks!

 

[dick54]

Can you really use dish washer to clean bottles? Does it clean the inside? That would knock 45 minutes off the time. I don't mind bottling just hate the washing even though I make sure bottles are clean after use.

 

[November]

You DON'T have a fully automated bottling line??? That's weird. Here is mine in full swing. I power it with Skittles.

 

[ClaudiusB]

You DON'T have a fully automated bottling line???
That's weird. Here is mine in full swing. I power it with Skittles.

I do!
Mine never complains, always on time and doesn't require Skittles.

 

[jakeelee]

Here is a simple dual head long tube counter pressure bottle filler I made 1995.

The filler was made just as a design challenge, now it is a museum piece.
I never bottled any beer, kegs for me.
The only filler I use twice a year is my 5 L party keg filler.

100 % automatic, CO2 bottle and fill head purging, production counter, etc.
Capper and outfeed conveyor not shown.

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

Hi ClaudiusB

How does the machine know when the bottles are filled? how does the automatic fill stop work?

Kindest regards,

/Jesper from Sweden