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The wine and sparkling wine cellar Josef Drathen GmbH & Co. KG in Zell an der Mosel can look back on a long tradition. The large customer base at home and abroad enjoys the enormous number of bottle shapes, colours and sizes. The screw-cap bottles are sealed with capping technology from the mechanical engineering company Dr Datz in Andernach.
Josef Drathen GmbH & Co. KG can look back on over 150 years of history and is now one of the leading wine and sparkling wine cellars on the Moselle. „For our lines, we need very Reliable machines, especially for sealing of the bottles,“ emphasises Peter Dietzler, who is responsible for technology and maintenance at Drathen.
More than half of the range consists of German quality wines, with the seven largest wine-growing regions being listed. Wherever possible, the freshly pressed must is delivered to the winery in Zell immediately after the harvest. There, the Drathen cellar masters use state-of-the-art processes to gently vinify the fresh must into wine or refine it into sparkling wine. Customers have the opportunity to purchase all of the company's own sparkling wines as well as a large part of the wine range and various sparkling wines as Procurement of customised own equipment or own brand.
Of course, imported wines are also an integral part of the product portfolio: from classic wine-growing regions („Old World“), as well as from overseas („New World“). There are also many seasonal products: from mulled wine and punch to cherry and blueberry wine, Heißer Hugo or Heiße Hilde to fresh, well-chilled May punch or fruity, sparkling wine cocktails.
The development of aluminium screw caps
In view of the variety of products, numerous design options can be realised for wine: Container sizes from 250 millilitres to 1.5 litres, bottle colours from different shades of green, blue and brown to white or satin finish are possible. The shapes on offer include Schlegel, Bordeaux or Burgundy, and the Closures Synthetic cork, natural cork, MCA screw cap (Metal Closure Aluminium), BVS (Bague Vin Suisse) aluminium closures, crown cork or long cap -closures. And: All label types and formats (wet or self-adhesive labels) can be processed.
In Germany, the proportion of closure types has changed radically over the past ten years. In 2010, natural cork still dominated with 44 per cent, followed by bottles with BVS long-cap closures made of aluminium with 32 per cent. In 2021, already 65 per cent BVS with external thread and only 22 per cent natural cork. Synthetic stoppers and short MCA closures follow at a considerable distance. Almost 80 per cent of white and rosé wines are sealed with BVS, and over 75 per cent of wines in the price segment up to ten euros per bottle. As the Drathen winery now sells a large proportion of its wines abroad in addition to the German domestic market, The short MCA and long BVS aluminium closures with external thread dominate overall. Both types of fastener are supplied with proven Dr Datz-machines.
Different capping machines in action
Hygiene and rationality are decisive criteria for all production processes, from the cellar to bottling and dispatch. Through modern bottling plants, Drathen's wine and sparkling wine are gently bottled in cold sterile conditions. The subsequent capping, labelling and palletising is also carried out fully automatically on the three lines with outputs of up to 7,000, 8,000 and 10,000 bottles per hour.
Drathen Winery has been relying on the sophisticated technology of Dr. Datz beverage and speciality machines for years for all screw caps, which now make up the majority of the bottles filled. For a long time, there was only one capping machine in the bottle cellar. Switched from MCA to BVS closures and back again several times a day had to be installed. Now two machines have been installed and, depending on the cap type, the bottles simply pass through the capping machine variant that is not required.
Locking and unscrewing
Dr Datz Getränke- und Sondermaschinenbau GmbH in Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate, has been designing and building mainly capping and unscrewing machines for the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, but above all for the beverage industry, for over 70 years. Dr Hermann Datz laid the foundation stone with a Swing stopper machine for beer bottles in the early 1950s. The machine quickly found many customers at breweries due to its high production quality and the significant rationalisation effects.
Over the decades, the company continued to develop technically, the machines became more modern and electronic controls were increasingly used. Gradually, the company designed Innovative, electronically controlled special machines. The company's clear strategic focus was on capping and unscrewing bottles and other containers of all kinds. Today, the company and its 20 employees have consolidated their position on the market. „With our high quality standards and our service, we have been achieving enormous customer satisfaction for decades,“ emphasises Managing Director Dr Charlotte Datz, who has been running the company since 1992.
With the Datz capping machines, all types of Standard closures, such as top cap, twist-off or roll-on closures can be easily processed, i.e. unscrewed or closed, on a wide variety of container types, from glass and plastic to light metal.
The capping machines at the Drathen winery were specially designed for Aluminium roll-on fasteners constructed. The technology has been continuously updated with the latest technology for decades. With the frequency-controlled drive, the power range can be infinitely varied, The electric height adjustment can be quickly adjusted to different bottle types from 120 to 350 millimetres in height. All drive elements are easy to clean and easily accessible.
Proven capping head
The cap is transferred to the bottles by means of towing, a Mechanical centring and anti-rotation lock ensures that the bottles are optimally aligned with the capping head and secured against twisting. The VD-4 capping head is a proven solution for all standard aluminium roll-on closures. Each Capping head has two threaded and two flanged rollers made of highly wear-resistant materials, with all essential parts made of stainless steel. This and the robust design ensure low wear and a reliable locking process. All Movements are mechanically synchronised, The main drive is frequency-controlled.
To ensure that the capping machines are always supplied with caps, Dr Datz has also installed a cap feeding device with a sorting unit. The caps are transferred to the capsule guide in the correct orientation.
„We have been working with Dr Datz capping machines for many years. They are robust and reliable and we are very satisfied with them.“
Peter Dietzler, Head of Technology at Drathen
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