De Bortoli’s largest winery in Bilbul was running two palletisers on two bottling lines which weren’t fast enough to handle the load.

An experienced Foodmach team member was on a visit to the winery and noticed that the palletisers were not keeping up with the rate of cartons coming down the line.

As a result, the packs on one bottling line were being split to go to two palletisers, and only one line could be used at a time.

Brian Mahlknecht, Packaging Engineer, De Bortoli explains: ‘We were basically hamstrung: we either had to run both lines much slower than we wanted to, or shut down one line completely to run the other at high speed.’

Foodmach conducted a palletiser efficiency audit and worked with De Bortoli to find a way around the issue.

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Foodmach engineers considered potential modifications to enable the palletiser on Line 1 to handle the entire load from its bottling line. The team designed several layouts and came up with a relatively low-cost solution.

The project scope included:

• Design and supply of new carton conveyors.
  
  
• Design and supply of spiral elevators and lowerator.
  
  
• Removing the existing pattern forming infeed system on the Line 1 palletiser and replacing it with a new Foodmach palletiser pattern forming system, complete with a compact Robomatrix® head.

Brian Mahlknecht: ‘Thanks to the new system, Line 1 can now run at capacity with just one palletiser, the other being used for Line 2.’

Future Proof

It was a simple upgrade that made a world of difference.

Bottling lines 1 and 2 can run without stopping to wait for palletisers.

The new Foodmach palletiser pattern forming system allows the packs to be formed into a layer quickly on a static pattern forming belt.

Once the pattern is complete, it is driven to the sweep bar where the layer is placed onto the pallet.

Robowizard® pattern forming software allows the operators to make adjustments to each layer and implement new pallet patterns quickly and without the need for further resources.

The software uses a simple drag and drop interface, no complicated software engineering required. This flexibility means that De Bortoli can change pack sizes or pallet configurations with ease.

Brian Mahlknecht: 'Since the installation, we’ve upped the efficiency significantly on both lines.’

About De Bortoli Wines

De Bortoli Wines is the second-largest family-owned grape growing and winemaking business in Australia.

Founded in 1928, the company employs around 500 people in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union.

Now producing wines in the Riverina, Yarra Valley, King Valley, Heathcote and Hunter Valley, De Bortoli is passionate about producing great wines now and for generations to come.

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