Compact brewhouse
Krones AG unveiled its CombiCube B, a compact brewhouse, in its Steinecker plant in Freising, Germany. The brewhouse uses high-performance technology streamlined for mid-tier requirements, the company says. Up to four vessels of the machine are used as a mash tun, a mash-wort copper, a lauter tun or a mash-lauter tun. The brewhouse’s footprint is between 97 and 117 square meters. The CombiCube will make its operational debut in Australia with CoPack Beverages, a contract bottler for both alcohol and soft drinks.

-Krones AG, Böhmerwaldstraße 5, 93073 Neutraubling, Germany; 49 9401 70-0; krones.com.

Liquid nitrogen injection
Vacuum Barrier Corp. released its Nitrodose line of liquid nitrogen injection systems with special dosing head attachments for unique applications. The company offers the directional dose dispersion/low dose velocity heater block to disperse liquid nitrogen in a controlled fashion so the charge will rest on the product surface and reduce velocity of the charge. The attachment is ideal for hot- and cold-fill applications with headspace less than 0.25 inches, the company says.
-Vacuum Barrier Corp., 4 Barten Lane, Woburn, Mass. 01801; 781/933-3570; vacuumbarrier.com.

Mounted graphics
FLEXcon introduced a two-part system for interior-mounted, large format two-sided window graphics. The company’s solution combines FLEXmark 6180, a non-vinyl white opaque polypropylene banner film, with FLEXmount Select DF462211, a clear mounting film. The FLEXmark 6180 is printable via ultraviolet and conventional offset, ultraviolet screen and ultraviolet inkjet, the company says. FLEXmount Select is a clear mounting film with a blue polyester liner to identify which side is applied to the printed graphic.
-FLEXcon Co. Inc., 1 FLEXcon Industrial Park, Spencer, Mass. 01562; 508/885-8200; flexcon.com.

Blow molding machine
Amsler Equipment Inc. introduced its L32 reheat stretch-blow molding machine for custom-blow molders of PET containers with small to medium size requirements. The machine has three cavities and is all-electric, delivering flexibility, lower power consumption and offering production of up to 40 million bottles per year, the company says. Featuring servo-driven electric stretch rods, the convertible blow molding machine is hydraulic free. The machine can produce 3,600 2-liter bottles per hour, the company says.
-Amsler Equipment Inc., 1245 Reid St., Unit 1, Richmon Hill, Ontario, Canada; 905/707-6704; amslerequipment.net.

Mass flow spiral conveyor
Ryson International Inc. offers its high capacity mass flow spiral conveyor, which is designed to handle full and empty bottles, cans, jars and other similar containers, the company says. Extended in- and out-feed tangents on the Mass Flow Spirals facilitate smooth side transfers to and from external conveyors. The conveyors can be equipped with 12-, 16- or 20-inch wide slats that can carry up to 800, 1,200 or 2,000 bottles or cans per minute, the company says. Ryson uses one drive motor, and the conveyor is available in powder-coated carbon steel, stainless steel and washdown versions.
-Ryson International Inc., 300 Newsome Drive, Yorktown, Va. 23692; 757/898-1530; ryson.com.

Low-level palletizer
Bastian Material Handling offers a 4000 series of low-level case palletizers, which have a production capacity up to 280 layers per hour and a maximum layer weight of 550 pounds. The palletizers use Advanced Human Machine Interfaces on a touch screen to access system parameters and come prewired for reduced installation time. Dual stripper plates, tier layer squaring and film sheet dispensers all are optional on the machine, which can produce loads up to 5,000 pounds and 90 inches tall.
-Bastian Material Handling, 9820 Association Court, Indianapolis, Ind. 46280; 317/575-9992; bastiansolutions.com.

Modular enclosures
Zoneworks introduced its environmental containment enclosure, which is custom-designed with a modular structure. The enclosure allows users to control temperature, humidity, sound, odor, dust, fumes and other elements, the company says. Zoneworks’ enclosures can be reconfigured for temporary product storage in internal or external and conditioned or ambient environments. Velcro holds together the modular vinyl panels that construct the enclosures, which can be built to fit an open area or an individual machine.
-Zoneworks, 8900 North Arbon Drive, Milwaukee, Wis. 53223; 800/553-4835; zoneworks.com.

Bill validator
MEI introduced the MEI Series 2000 12 V battery bill validator, a new 12-volt battery-operated bill validator that the company says uses half the power of competitive models. The vending machine bill validator operates in sleep mode until a customer inserts a bill. The company said the validator returns from sleep mode 0.5 seconds after a customer inserts the bill in either direction, face up or face down. Enclosed sensors help protect the machine from vandalism and fluids, and it is designed to withstand harsh environments and recover from vandalism without a service call.
-MEI, 1301 Wilson Drive, West Chester, Pa. 19380; 800/345-8215; meigroup.com.

Mobile payment application
Apriva has partnered with AT&T to release AprivaPay and AprivaPay Professional, a mobile payment application that the company says turns smart phones into point-of-sale devices that accept credit and debit card transactions. The application allows businesses to process credit and debit transactions through a mobile web browser on a smart phone, and it can be integrated with an optional card reader and receipt printer. AprivaPay runs on all smart phones. AprivaPay Professional is available only on Windows Mobile standard and professional devices.
-Apriva, 6900 East Camelback Road, Suite 700, Scottsdale, Ariz. 85251; 480/421-1210; apriva.com.

Portable scanner
Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions division introduced its CS3000 series of portable 1D laser scanning devices. The devices are designed for task workers who need basic bar code scanners for mobile applications. Motorola said that the new device provides direct-store-delivery workers with an ergonomic and intuitive device to help automate order processing at the point of consumption. Available as a batch or Bluetooth model, the device has a two-button interface and can fit in a pocket or attach to a lanyard.
-Motorola Inc., 1303 East Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, Ill. 60196; 847/576-5000; motorola.com.

Merchandising solution
Cannon Equipment released VersaGrid, a merchandising solution designed for the retail front-end display space. The system uses a series of permanent reconfigurable base frames connected together and can connect multiple frames to extend the display as needed, the company says. It also can add perpendicular end panels and beverage coolers. Shelves, baskets, pegs and magazine pockets can be attached anywhere on the VersaGrid system. A component locator panel is integrated into the system to help locate merchandising components, which can be tracked and catalogued with a Cannon Equipment asset tag system.
-Cannon Equipment, 15100 Business Parkway, Rosemount, Minn. 55068; 651/322-6300; cannonequipment.com.

Flexible screw conveyors
Spiroflow Systems Inc. redesigned its line of nine Flexible Screw Conveyors for dry bulk solids and ingredients, which the company says will reduce material handling, product waste and downtime between batches. The conveyors include a direct electric motor-driven spiral screw, the only moving part in the system, that rotates in a sealed tube to move material along. The system can be integrated with mobile conveyors, bulk bag dischargers, rigid bin emptiers and sack emptiers, the company says. Throughput speeds ranging from 10 pounds per hour to 88,000 pounds per hour are possible with the company’s nine different models.
-Spiroflow Systems Inc., 2806 Gray Fox Road, Monroe, N.C. 28110; 704/291-9595; spiroflowsystems.com.

Color inspection
Applied Vision Corp. offers its KromaKing camera-based colorimetric tools, which the company says can measure color with the accuracy of a spectrophotometer and register patterns, interpret process colors and image cylindrical shiny surfaces. The company offers offline laboratory sampling systems that completely cover the label, decorator blanket inspection and high-speed online systems that can measure 600 to 3,000 cans per minute. KromaKing is capable of mixed label inspection and flat-sheet decoration inspection, the company says.
-Applied Vision Corp., 2020 Vision Lane, Akron, Ohio 44223; 330/926-2222; appliedvision.com.

Double seam scanner
CMC-Kuhnke, Albany, N.Y., has developed a SEAMscan Statistical Process Control (SPC) System. The system is a high-resolution tool to inspect and measure double-seam cans and features an optical seam scanner and extensive database through a user-friendly interface, the company says.
“We can help to drive product innovation by providing more accurate measurement tools,” says Alex Grossjohann, CMC-Kuhnke’s vice president.

The system, which can be bundled with a technical support plan, is composed of three products: the VSI-5000 Series Video SEAM Imager, Auto SEAMview software and Visionary SPC software.

The VSI-5000 Series Video SEAM Imager includes a high-resolution digital seam scope, which has replaced an analog camera as the standard camera in CMC-Kuhnke’s equipment. Customers have the option of ordering the imager camera in black and white or color. The Auto SEAMview software automatically measures, compares and evaluates double seam images. In the software, the operator can make notes directly on the captured image, which is saved as a .bmp, .gif or .jpg file that can be sent in a message or used in a document or spreadsheet. With the Visionary SPC software, customers can tap the company’s Visionary QC database for can inspection and statistical process control.

The system can operate in Microsoft Windows 98, 2000 or XP environments, and it can be easily upgraded to a full can inspection database and statistical process control system from a basic seam scanner, the company says. Customers also can attach existing can gauges and can testers with adapters and converters.

With the SEAMscan SPC system, customers can measure double seams in less than one second, store measurement data and seam images in a database, and directly integrate with many other inspection systems, CMC-Kuhnke says. The system can be upgraded to a network version that allows customers to view inspection information, double-seam images and SPC graphs remotely.

All of the company’s manual and semi-automated options for contact measurement of seam thickness and countersink depth measurement can integrate directly with the system as well, the company says.
“We’ve talked to a lot of companies that recently have seen a 10 percent increase in customer complaints due to the can integrity,” Grossjohann says. “That’s a major thing, and we’re trying to help this learning curve because everyone is starting from scratch.” BI