Corona brewery upgrades with Krones glass line

Beck’s, Corona and Budweiser, globally known brands of beer, come from Anheuser Busch InBev, a brewing group that produces around one-third of the world’s beer. The group’s portfolio comprises 630 brands, made in 260 breweries. It employs more than 170,000 people in over 150 countries.

In South Africa, it operates seven breweries, including the Pretoria South African Breweries (SAB) site with almost 900 employees. This plant produces South African brand Castle Lite and Corona, adding up to 8.5 million hectolitres each year. To boost production of Corona, the company has added a non-returnable glass line from Krones.

The glass line features two separate lines running in parallel, each with the capacity to fill 50,000 bottles per hour. This offers AB InBev a high output and the flexibility to handle different beers in parallel.

“To fit perfectly in SAB’s hall concept this line is extremely compact, with shared operating areas. This allows operators to attend to multiple machines, thereby reducing the number of operators required,” said Boris Tremmel, Head of Key Account Sales at Krones.

The Ergomodul modular labeller features interchangeable labelling stations, making it possible to switch over to the beer currently in production. Since Corona bottles feature applied ceramic labels, they simply bypass the labeller.

The line also runs two different packers, giving SAB more choices — the Variopac Pro WT for wraparound cartons and trays and the Variopac Pro PFS for shrink packs. The Variopac Pro offers easy changeovers and expansion, so changes to packaging concepts can be accommodated at any time.

Another feature is the use of the multifunctional clamping starwheel MultiGuide Base. Since the top and bottom clamps can be opened independently of each other, it can securely grip bottles with varying diameters, minimising the need for manual intervention during format changeovers.