Condensation free bottles made possible

Cooley Distillery, who are part of the Beam Suntory Group, produce quality Irish Whiskeys such as Kilbeggan, a brand which includes multi-award winning blended, and single malts.

ACI were initially contacted by Adrian Sheelan, Bottling Plant Manager for Cooleys, who explains why there was a need to install a drying system. “During the colder winter months, we were experiencing a big issue with condensation. The cause of this was due to empty bottles being stored in a cold warehouse, and then brought into a much warmer factory environment. When we ran these bottles through the line, the condensation was severely affecting both the labelling process and the overall quality of the product.”

Adrian continues, “The Distillery had not been using any form of drying system, and so after discovering ACI on the internet, once contact was made, they very quickly provided us with the confidence that we could easily solve this problem. We not only visited their manufacturing and testing facility in Devon, but one of their Technical Engineers also came to County Louth to ensure the equipment was going to be appropriate to our needs – all to good effect,” he added.

The space envelope available on the Cooley’s production line to install a drying system was restricted, so ACI supplied an ‘EL’ Eye Level Drying System – a semi-enclosed drying system where the blower is contained within a stainless steel enclosure. Additional protection to the blower is given by mounting the enclosure to a leg kit that is easily positioned, in this case directly above the conveyor line. The system was fitted with a pair of 500mm long stainless steel air knives that provided full body drying of the different shapes and sizes of Cooley’s Whiskey bottles processed.

“The installation of the ACI Drying System had an immediate effect once it was installed and ensures that all the self-adhesive and wet glue labels are now applied and adhere correctly. We can safely say that we have completely eliminated the condensation issue!’ states Adrian.

Solutions For Packaging & Labelling

Our range of bottle and can drying systems helps to ensure that today’s ground breaking labelling and packaging technology is not compromised by any surface water used in the packaging process.