This tour starts at the big green “S” shaped conveyer
and moves clockwise.
This is Big Sky Brewing Company’s Bottling Line. We’ll
get more detailed looks in the next few tours, but here is the “big
picture.” Just beyond the line, you can see the Bright Tanks that we visited
in our last tour (I told you they were big!) The “S” shaped conveyor brings
new, empty bottles down to the Bottling Line, and then they are rinsed and
filled by two machines at the front of the line. The bottles are then
labeled and checked to ensure there really is 12 ounces in each bottle. They
are then separated into four rows so that they are ready to fill a case. The
other half of the bottling line is involved in erecting cases and six-pack
carriers, stuffing the carrier into the case, and then moving the case under
the recently filled bottles. The bottles are then dropped into the case,
which is glued shut and conveyed to the Palletizer which sets them in a
pattern on the pallet. Once the pallet is filled with 72 cases of beer, our
fork-lift driver takes it into the cooler. Now let’s take an up-close look
at the Rinser, Filler, and Crowner. |
