Customer Background
The customer is a US-based producer of food products, including compressed gas cartridges used in the food service industry. A popular product of the company is the whipped cream charger bottle.
Challenge
The customer was looking for a new solution to cleaning a very high production rate of small aluminum charger bottles for use with nitrous oxide food products. The rate of the commercial bottle washer is 200 bottles per minute, and bottles needed to meet food-grade cleaning specifications.
Solution
Alliance provided a 14-inch wide conveyorized indexing machine with special stainless steel part fixtures designed to hold the small charger bottles in an upright position, 8 bottles per row. Bottles are loaded by a feeding device, 8 bottles every 1.4 seconds. Using indexing, precise cleaning is accomplished at various stops where dedicated spray nozzles can target the interior of the bottles through a tight neck opening, measuring only 1/4″ at the opening, and tapered to 3/16″, in diameter. The wash zone has 38 targeted positions, and the rinse zone has 15 targeted positions. Cycle times are as follows: 2.4 second spray, 1.4 second fill, and 1 second move time between index locations. Exterior of the bottles are cleaned using a general spray pattern configuration. A load end profile plate stops the conveyor if a part is mis-loaded, which prevents damage to the commercial bottle washer. Solution is filtered through multiple filter chambers to ensure contaminants are not re-deposited onto parts. A compressed air blowoff targets the interior of the charger bottles, and a heat blower fully dries parts upon exit from the commercial bottle washer. Cartridges are auto-discharged using compressed air to assist in ejecting the parts from the fixture.
