Trainee at fair: Krones’ exhibits at the Brau 2014 – Vol. 1: the Ergomatic labeller

The BrauBeviale 2014 is fast approaching. In less than two months’ time, vendors will there be showcasing their solutions themed around the process chain involved in beverage production – and Krones not least among them. But what exhibits will Krones be spotlighting? And what can each of them do? How are the machines conceived, and how do they function? What are they used for? Nina and Markus from the Technology Team will in the weeks ahead be getting to the bottom of these questions, and will be providing details of Krones’ exhibits at the BrauBeviale 2014.

Today, they reveal which Krones machine ensures that consumers can recognise at first glance what’s actually inside a particular bottle: the Ergomatic labeller. Even the mere name of this machine connotes complicated technology – but that’s no problem for Nina und Markus!

“The product specialist Daniel Börner did more than just explain the theory behind the Ergomatic labeller to us: we, Nina and Markus, were even allowed to admire the machine live, and take a look at it in one of the halls at Neutraubling. Which meant Daniel Börner was able to explain how the Ergomatic functions by demonstrating this on the actual machine.”

The Ergomatic’s advantages

“We immediately noticed a difference from the other labellers that were being assembled right next to it: the Ergomatic is a whole lot smaller! Why is this so? We soon realised: the advantage is that the Ergomatic does not possess a tabletop, which means the user can reach the handling parts directly – and thus replace them in next to no time! That’s really brilliant!

The product specialist Daniel Börner also showed us how the Ergomatic’s stations had been design-enhanced for improved ergonomics and efficiency overall. He demonstrated for us, directly at the machine, how in the cold-glue station the handling parts, the glue scraper, the glue roller, the pallet shafts and the gripper cylinders can be replaced from the side – and no longer have to be lifted out upwards as used to be the case. Another innovation is the use of servomotors, which makes the Ergomatic more individual, more energy-economical in operation, as well as reducing wear and tear.

What we also found extremely interesting was this: the Ergomatic can be transformed into an Ergomodule by some minor changes. For this purpose, the Ergomatic features docking stations with a “plug and label” capability. This means the supply lines for air or electricity don’t need to be connected up separately, but are already incorporated in the station itself.”

Different labelling processes

“We learned that the Ergomatic, like all the modularised machines, can handle different labelling processes: precut labelling with cold glue, precut labelling with hotmelt, reel-fed labelling with hotmelt, and reel-fed labelling with pressure-sensitive dress. The Ergomatic also enables clients to dress entirely different containers in different ways.

Once again, we learned a lot of interesting things! And we thought it was great that we were able to see the machine hands-on and not only in pictures. This enabled us to understand everything a whole lot better.

We hope that you, too, have learned a new thing or two, and perhaps felt persuaded to come and see the Krones Ergomatic live yourself – at the BrauBeviale 2014, for example! At the fair itself, of course, there will be plenty more exciting exhibits, but there’ll be more about that in our next blog posting…” 🙂