Commisioned by Big Bottle Wines Pty Limited in 2003 to design & build a large wine bottle washng & filling line.
Throwing convention out the window I designed a rotary system that picked up the bottles off an infeed conveyor & transport them in an arc while rinsing the old wine out then immersing them in an ultrasonic washer which was pre heated to 55C using electric elements & 3kW of ultrasonic transducers to wash the glass bottles inside & out. The bottles then lifted by robotic arms from the tank & drained before being rinsed. The next stage was a nitrogen purge of the bottle before bing filled. Capping was then performed and the bottles labelled & hand packed for dispatch.
The control system for this unit also controlled a wash staion built as an add on to wash the 1500L wine transportation tanks. Was the first rotary ultrasonid immersion washer in teh wrld to the best of my knowledge. Indeed have not seen anything like it since. The effectiveness of the wash was far superior to standard chemical spray wash. Any calcite residue was totally removed. The whole concept was Solid modelled first then put into production. The machine took 6 months to build & commision. It was further expanded to incorporate wine tank washing & plant control
CAD Model Vortex R150
Under Construction in Sinnec's factory Wollongong 2003
In use at Big Bottle Wines Nth Melbourne
Internal of Machine
Control System