At its booth at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, Pneumatic Scale Angelus (PSA), a BW Packaging company, introduced the latest edition to its craft beverage canning line portfolio, the CB100R. The new line marries rotary counter-pressure filling with rotary Angelus seaming in a compact footprint, operating at more than 100 cans/min.
Similar to prior PSA counter-pressure models, the CB100R is engineered for producers interested in canning beer, cider, seltzer, carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), and other beverages at carbonation levels of up to 4.1 vols (8 g/l) CO2. As PSA explained at the booth, adding a rotary three-spindle seamer allows for faster speeds and a smooth, continuous-motion transition from filling to seaming, eliminating unnecessary agitation. Cans are purged of oxygen prior to filling, with configurable purge and snift times to control foaming. Under-cover gassing at the turret lid feed and a bubble breaker positioned ahead of the Angelus seamer serve to keep Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels to what PSA says is an industry-leading minimum.
“Our CB100R builds upon the successes of our existing counter-pressure lines, with the added advantages of a full rotary system,” said Mike Davis, PSA’s product line leader for Can Filling. “The combination of a rotary filling turret with rotary seaming means we’re able to increase the number of cans traveling through the system, maintaining best-in-class Angelus seam integrity without creating any increase in product agitation. Ultimately, this allows us to eliminate the unwanted reductions in carbonation levels that are seen with other filling methods.”
Also similar to PSA’s other counter-pressure models, the CB100R employs true isobarometric filling, with a gravity-fed onboard product filler bowl rated to 60 psi/4 bar, where the can being filled and the product going into the can are at equal pressure, maintaining carbonation solubility throughout the filling process. PSA explains that the filler uses precision magnetic flowmeters to ensure filling accuracy, with little to no waste.
“The advantage of the full rotary CB100R design is a smaller footprint than other rotary and linear formats,” said Adam Brandt, PSA’s vice president of Sales. “The addition of the rotary seamer means we can achieve faster speeds in a more compact design. This is great for brewers who want to increase production without requiring additional space, which is often already at a premium.”
The CB100R system includes quick-change can handling parts and recipe-driven automatic motorized turret-height adjustment to accommodate multiple can sizes, as well as an automated clean-in-place (CIP) routine with customizable settings for easy cleaning between product changes. An intuitive human-machine interface (HMI) for individual fill head volume adjustments simplifies operation.
