Canning lines

[nbrunetti]

We recently purchased our first order of cans and we are currently canning our beer with a manual seamer. Can sells have been growing steadily and we are falling behind on production. We are also experiencing a higher rate of loss do to excess foam then we were expecting so we are now looking into getting an automated canning line in the 15 - 50 cpm area.

From doing some research on this site and the Internet I found these three caning systems.

Frusso - This company is out of Argentina. I emailed them about a week ago asking for specifics on price and speed (can per minute or hour) but they haven't gotten back to me yet....

http://frusso.com/home_en.htm

Cask - Automated cannning line 30 cpm capacity. According to a posting on Probrewer this canning line costs approx. $80,000

http://www.cask.com/main/index.php?page_id=40

Applied Bottling - They have two different models at 6 cmp and 30 cpm. I got a quote of $16,500 for the 6 cpm system but not the 30 cmp system. They also sell cans in smaller quantities (aprox 40,0000 instead of the 155,000 minimal order we already purchased).

http://applied-bottling.com/all_filling_systems/beer_filling_systems.html

Has anyone used one of these sytems? If so how have they worked? How was support when needed? Would you recommend the canning line and company?

Are there any other canning systems in the 15 - 50 cpm range that people know of?

Does anyone have a canning line they are looking to sell?

Cheers!
Nick Brunetti
Arctic Craft Brewery

[nbrunetti]

It looks like we are going to go with the Frusso canning line. Does anyone have experience with this line? How is support? Any major issues? What is your actual output?

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

http://frusso.com/home_en.htm

Cheers,
Nick

[Rob Creighton]

From the experience a neighbour brewery here in Ontario had, I would say be very, very afraid.
No service
No acknowledgement of fundemental design flaws (It's your fault)
Not converted to Canadian electric specs
Burs on internal filler valves
Serious flaws in seamer and seaming chucks
The brewery had to get an oldtime canning guy in to get things running and the Argentenians deny there is a problem

The distributor here has written them off.
The concept of a small rotary filler with a robust seamer makes a great deal of sense to me but these guys don't seem to be the answer.

[nbrunetti]

Rob,

Thanks for the reply! I have received some other feedback that also said that the Frusso support was not very good (and that's putting it nicely). Do you know how many cans per hour the other brewery was able to achieve once they did get the Frusso line running properly? Also, could you please provide more detail of the seamer flaws? What were the flaws and were they able to be fixed?

Cheers!
Nick

[Rob Creighton]

Hi Nick,
I will get the number of the supplier who has been very upfront about the problems they've had and forward it to you via a pm

[billvelek]

We are interested in latest canning info ...

We are interested in the latest canning info for micro-breweries -- sources of equipment, supplies, costs, problems, etc. If any micros have moved into that facet but have not posted yet, I'd appreciate any info that can be provided.

Thanks.

Bill Velek