Planned Maintenance. Installing New Equipment at the Tequila Industry

por David Juárez | Dec 23, 2021 3:17:14 PM

Installation of new equipment

In 2019, Casa Sauza acquired new packaging equipment, such as a labelling machine, a packer, a palletizing robot, a trypack and other smaller equipment. I'll here share with you how their installation was made and how we ran functionality tests.

tequila packaging

Labelling Machine

I'm starting with the labelling machine. We first make a request so it comes with all the features that are required according to our presentations, such as the parts for creating:

  • Front label
  • Back label
  • Fiscal information tag
  • Estrick

And additionally, an exclusive part for labelling the bottle's cap. All this, in a single machine.

Here's what's interesting about our machine: we already have it in our company and we are waiting to see if it'll really work according to what we've requested.

Installation steps:

  1. Place our machine -which takes up 420cm- in a space of 500cm. The spaces are analyzed and we find a way to place it so it won't make the maintenance intervention processes, a complicated task to achieve.
  2. Run tests of the handles or tools to detect any possible incompatibility.
  3. Test the machine with the materials it'll be working with. We make this tests to document the maximum and minimum tolerable parameters of the machine facing our materials. We run these tests with approximately 300 bottles put under trial and error.
  4. Run the labelling of the first 500 bottles, in order to get the approval of the quality department.
labelling machine tequila industry casa sauza

*Here is a picture of our new labelling machine at work

Packaging machine

We also bought a packaging machine similar to the one that we have but with some improvement requirements in order to achieve cero shutdowns.

This machine is around 700 cm length x 200 cm width. This is the measurement of the equipment without the conveyors.

This machine's placement is carried out just like as it was done with the labeling machine: always trying not to obstruct access for the maintenance process and avoiding areas of difficult access.

Why do I mention the spaces? because our packaging area is located in a space of 25 meters (width) by 120 meters (length). In this space, we keep two and a half lines. The half line is to make premium products.

  1. Materials tests are carried out, such as with boxes and lockers.
  2. We then proceed to register heights, widths and all the adjustments that must be identified in order to register this information.
  3. We run the packaging of 500 boxes in order to get the approval of the quality department.
baumer packaging machine

*This is the Baumer packaging machine

Palletizing robot

Our best acquisition is our palletizing robot. This machine was a little easier to install, because it's smaller than the palletizing machine that we had before.

It was a very old machine but very efficient so, why did we change it? It had to be replaced by a faster machine because of the demand for production.

It's approval process was also faster since it's a robot and we only need to measure the height and width of our boxes' transportation pallets.

What else was done?

  1. The pallet programming in our robot's main board.
  2. Several stowage of our products
  3. Check parameters, register all and... that's it!
palletizing robot casa sauza

*This is our robot and I proudly brag about it since it's the first of its kind at the tequila industry.

The overall experience

It's been a month since our new equipment started working and everything is going very well. I tell you this because I'm proud to be able to share this information with you: the closing of 2018 was a very good one for me, since it was my first year leading the maintenance of the whole packaging area. And I will brag about it: the results were very productive. I achieve this of course, with the support of our maintenance staff and operators. In Sauza, we always work as a team!

If you would like to know more about our production processes, feel free to come to Casa Sauza and visit our production plant. We'd be glad to show you around!

Click here for more information on Casa Sauza Guided Tours

 

 

 

 

 

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