Wild Goose cans per minute?

[schmogger]

Those of you using the Wild Goose WGC-250 quad head canning line, how many cans per minute or cases per hour are your getting? Please also list weather the cans are 12 or 16oz. The machine seems very solid but does anyone have things they do not like about the machine or wish were designed different? Thank you for any input.

[Starcat]

Some thoughts

Only having seen one on video and not live, they have some features that are enviable and at a glance " well engineered " compared to " other " brands I have encountered.
The twist rinser looks quite solid and the depal looks decent.
It might be quite interesting to hybridize as possible.
Any unit runs better when you have a hand around that really knows how to tweak the entire unit by looking at the entire process.
Our Brewmaster is very good at this.

MY plan would be to see some more types of units run live and make comparisons.

All the best

[NodaBrew]

Cans per minute

We saw 30-33 per minute and that was 16 oz cans. We emptied 60 total barrels in 8-9 hours with no problems. We probably could have done a bit more but we had compressor issues the first couple of hours. It is a nice canning line that can keep several people busy at the pack-off table.

Todd

[Starcat]

Wild Goose

The Wild goose lines look good on their videos.

[paul farnsworth]

wlid goose oxygen levels

Anybody know what dissolved oxygen levels they are getting when running this line at the 30-39 cpm rate?

Cheers

Paul Farnsworth
Brewhub
Florida

[drewseslu]

Paul,
The folks from Anton-Paar came by for a demo of their new combined digital CO2 & O2 device at my last post several months ago.

We measured an unfiltered Baltic Porter in the BBT at 9ppb DO and then the same batch out of the cans from a Wild Goose MC250 4 head filler, run at about 36 cpm came back at 15ppb DO. Pretty impressive, IMO, and comparable to a multi million dollar Krones line running at three times that speed. However, the lid drop doesn't always function with 100% reliability. When a can advances without a lid, the foam (beer) in the can is then conveyed under and makes direct contact with an exposed, plastic rail, designed to guide the lids into place. This rail is not cleaned during CIP procedures and must be dealt with manually. After conveyance beyond this rail a worker must manually apply a lid in the very brief window before it reaches the pre seamer sensor in order to continue operation. We had no facilities to test the microbiological impact of the beer's contact with said rail, but its effects are almost assured.
On the whole, it is a good machine, but like all packaging lines, it has its strikes and its gutters.
Cheers and beers,
Drew

Anybody know what dissolved oxygen levels they are getting when running this line at the 30-39 cpm rate?

Cheers

Paul Farnsworth
Brewhub
Florida

[Wirtzling]

We have had varied results with our line. (MC-250). We get anywhere from 20-28 cpm on 16's and 26-40 cpm on 12's. We recently bought an Anton Paar CO2/DO tester. What we found out was that the readings from our zahm have been way off. Drastically off. We were overcarbonating our beers so they would not taste flat at lower elevation. We were carbing our beers to 2.9. Well 2.9 was actually 2.0 when we got the digital tester.

When we started carbing to correct levels we ran into problems canning. We have had to slow the line down and we are still having major issues. Wildgoose is coming up tomorrow to help us figure what is happening.

As for the DO. We don't have the piercing device yet. They brought one with them when they trained us on the device. That day we tested a beer that read 12ppb in the tank. The cans were anywhere from 14ppb-140ppb. The lid dropper seems to be the major weak link. If the lid goes on right you are fine. If it fumbles or if you have to put a lid on by hand there is no telling what the air intake will be.

Matt Wirtz
Bonfire Brewing

[schmogger]

Paul,
The folks from Anton-Paar came by for a demo of their new combined digital CO2 & O2 device at my last post several months ago.

We measured an unfiltered Baltic Porter in the BBT at 9ppb DO and then the same batch out of the cans from a Wild Goose MC250 4 head filler, run at about 36 cpm came back at 15ppb DO. Pretty impressive, IMO, and comparable to a multi million dollar Krones line running at three times that speed. However, the lid drop doesn't always function with 100% reliability. When a can advances without a lid, the foam (beer) in the can is then conveyed under and makes direct contact with an exposed, plastic rail, designed to guide the lids into place. This rail is not cleaned during CIP procedures and must be dealt with manually. After conveyance beyond this rail a worker must manually apply a lid in the very brief window before it reaches the pre seamer sensor in order to continue operation. We had no facilities to test the microbiological impact of the beer's contact with said rail, but its effects are almost assured.
On the whole, it is a good machine, but like all packaging lines, it has its strikes and its gutters.
Cheers and beers,
Drew

Are you using 12 oz cans and getting 36 cpm?

[Larry Doyle]

We have had varied results with our line. (MC-250). We get anywhere from 20-28 cpm on 16's and 26-40 cpm on 12's. We recently bought an Anton Paar CO2/DO tester. What we found out was that the readings from our zahm have been way off. Drastically off. We were overcarbonating our beers so they would not taste flat at lower elevation. We were carbing our beers to 2.9. Well 2.9 was actually 2.0 when we got the digital tester.

When we started carbing to correct levels we ran into problems canning. We have had to slow the line down and we are still having major issues. Wildgoose is coming up tomorrow to help us figure what is happening.

As for the DO. We don't have the piercing device yet. They brought one with them when they trained us on the device. That day we tested a beer that read 12ppb in the tank. The cans were anywhere from 14ppb-140ppb. The lid dropper seems to be the major weak link. If the lid goes on right you are fine. If it fumbles or if you have to put a lid on by hand there is no telling what the air intake will be.

Matt Wirtz
Bonfire Brewing

What made you believe the CO2 readings from the magic box over the Zahm-Nagel? And then you changed your process to accommodate the magic box readings. And then you found that your new process was messed up. Why???

[Craft Canning]

we get 33-36 for 16s and 39-41 for 12s. depends alot on the beer and the temp/c02 volumes. Usually we run 38-39. Choke point is the seamer, we could fill at about 45-48 cans/minute on some beers. we have over a million cans thru ours and it has treated us well once we figured it out.

for cider that is carbed legally, (>2.0 volumes), we can get 41 cans/ minute on 16s.

[TBBC]

We're getting 31 CPM 16oz. Once you figure out how to operate the line, it's fantastic. Probably the most positive aspect of Wild Goose is that they are an engineering firm that develops, builds, sells direct, and supports their own product. WGC has the ability to problem solve and deliver a solution....seems to be rare these days. I am a happy customer especially considering the price point vs. speed coupled with the functionality. The only issue that I am having is the durability. Water in Florida tends to corrode everything...so, we definitely have to take our time washing her down and drying her off. I've had to replace some parts that seem to have corroded prematurely but considering the fact that the line ran hands off without much maintenance for 2 years, seems a little reasonable. When it's time for me to expand my packaging operations, I will look at WGC first.

[Starcat]

Maxing Cans per minute

I don't know about the adjustments of Wild Goose lines as we have another brand, but getting the can counts up is a matter of tuning the various timings and getting that result synchronized as a whole. Air ram adjustments in particular.