In 2017, the Westheim brewery in the Sauerland region, founded in 1862, took the first step towards automation with a Kawasaki palletising robot. Since then, the entire bottle production process has been successfully automated with additional robots - from empties management to bottle filling.
The Count of Stolberg's Westheim Brewery in Marsberg (Sauerland) has been brewing regional beer specialities for the German and international market for more than 150 years. In order to assert itself in a competitive market in the long term and successfully prevent the worsening shortage of skilled labour a few years ago, the decision was made to gradually automate the entire production process.
Until 2017, the Westheim brewery mainly used older mechanical solutions, some of which dated back to the early 1980s. In particular the old palletising system took up a lot of space in the brewery with limited space available and was very susceptible to faults. For master brewer Jörg Tolzmann, this was therefore the logical first step for the Automation of the entire infrastructure and production. The choice quickly fell on a Kawasaki Robotics CP500L high-performance palletising robot.
The added value of the robot system quickly became apparent: previously, the palletising system had to be lowered step by step, then the pallet was loaded manually and finally transported away - separately for full and empty crates. Now the physical strain on the responsible employee is significantly reduced and primarily drives the forklift truck.
The successful installation of the palletising system was followed by the modernisation of the entire bottle production - with two additional Kawasaki BX200L robots for packing and unpacking the bottles in the centre. Their integration was also very straightforward: Because All relevant machines remained in the same place and the robots only need a small footprintonly safety fences and new belt settings were necessary.
The brewing market has changed massively in recent years: "It used to be one type of beer - in small and large bottles. Today, we have several own brands, lemonade and other drinks and produce for other companies. In short, there is an incredible variety. Our team and production facilities are being asked to do much more than before", says Tolzmann.
The new robot-assisted production offers the necessary flexibility: the Kawasaki Robotics BX200L in the packing station is able to independently pick up moulded parts and thus switch to new varieties in the shortest possible time and without effort. The tedious and time-consuming conversion of the system is no longer necessary. "Our team has really got a breath of fresh air," says Technical Director Thomas Juckenath happily.
Above all, the significantly reduced running costs - especially compared to older machines - proved to be a tangible advantage for the Westheim brewery after just a short time. "The robots run simply and reliably. The whole thing becomes easier to maintain", says Juckenath.
Source: Kawasaki Robotics
