When Kansas City, Mo.-based Boulevard Brewing Co., now a part of Puurs, Belgium-based Duvel Moortgat, realized that the craft brewing business it had been building since 1989 was outgrowing its infrastructure and equipment, the company knew it needed to turn to automation to support its growth.

KHS developed the new, horizontally arranged Feedflow feed module for conveying very light preforms to its InnoPET Blomax stretch blow molder.

“The introduction of a robotic palletizer has had a huge impact on our business,” say Product Manager Jason Covington and Business Development Manager Steve Golladay of ITW Warehouse Automation (ITWWA), Arden, N.C.

 Bulk, portion-control, lightweight, flexible and additional packaging innovations have placed a strain on production equipment such as palletizers.