Case Study

Case Study UPDATE: Traditional German Brewery Automates Entire
Bottle Production Process
Application: Palletizing & Material Handling
Robot Model: Kawasaki CP500L Palletizing & BX200L Large Payload Robots

The new system makes their employees’ daily tasks easier,thus making it easier to retain their workforce. For example,
the Kawasaki Robotics BX200L in the packing station can pickup bottles independently and change over to new varieties
quickly and easily – without extra effort from employees. Thelaborious and time-consuming changeover of the line is nolonger necessary. "Our team has really got some breathingroom," says Juckenath.
An evolving brewery market

OVERVIEW
Westheimer Brewery has been brewing regional beer
specialties for the German and international markets formore than 150 years. In order to assert themselves in acompetitive market and stay productive despite labor
shortages, the brewery decided to automate its entire
production step by step.
In 2017, Westheimer Brewery took the first step towards
automation by installing a Kawasaki palletizer to replace
outdated machinery. After seeing success with their firstrobot, they decided to add two additional Kawasaki robots,
this time BX200L models. Now, their entire bottle production
line is automated - from managing empty bottles and fillingthem, to palletizing for distribution.

The brewery market has changed massively in recent years,
and being able to provide one product type is not enough tomeet market demand. The new robot-assisted production
provides the flexibility Westheimer needed to meet customer
requests.
"It used to be one type of beer in small and large bottles.
Today, we have several private labels, lemonade and otherbeverages, and produce for other companies. In short, there isan incredible variety. Our team and production facilities arebeing challenged much more than before," says Tolzmann.
Pandemic pivot
By automating their line, Westheimer was able to meet thehigh demand for more bottled beer and greater productvariety - including non-alcoholic beverages – that arose
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that bottle production
has been fully and successfully automated, the brewery canshift their focus to expanding their keg and cask productionline.

“As early as the 1990s, there were the first attempts atautomation at Westheimer with the introduction of a PLC,"
recalls technical manager Thomas Juckenath, who hasworked on Westheimer’s automation since its inception. "TheMod BUS systems chosen at that time works perfectly with
Kawasaki robots. The basic program created at that time has
been the basis for all automation ever since and is constantly
being developed further."

CHALLENGES
Retaining skilled workers
In-house training and retaining skilled workers has played alarge role in Westheimer Brewery’s continued success,explains master brewer Jörg Tolzmann: "Long-term retentionof good skilled workers is crucial, because the shortage isclearly noticeable in the brewery and the craft sector,
especially in rural regions like the Sauerland (where thebrewery is located)." As in almost all industries there isfluctuation, and retaining experienced employees isparticularly important as new employees are increasingly
difficult to recruit.

SOLUTION• Kawasaki CP500L first installed to replace outdated
palletizing machinery• Two BX200L robots added in second phase of automation
to load an unload bottles into crates
Westheimer’s production takes place on two linked levels handling empty bottles and end products below and filling
above. The crates with empty bottles are fed from the firstfloor to the bottle line via a conveyor system.

Case Study

The palletizing robot places crated bottles on a pallet.

increased. The filled and ready-to-sell crates are then fed
via the conveyor system to the palletizer to process fordistribution. Integrating the new robots was astraightforward task. Because all relevant machines
basically remained in the same place and the new robots
have such a small footprint, only safety fences and new
belt settings were necessary.
The added value of the robotic system quickly became
apparent. Previously, the palletizer had to be shut down
step by step so each pallet could be loaded manually. Then,
anoperator would have to remove it for both full andemptycrates. With the new system, thisphysicallytaxingtask has been removed from employees’
workloads, and they are able to do any leftover tasks using
a forklift.
Overall efficiency has increased for the brewery sincephase two of their automation process. Now, both full andempty crates run down a conveyor belt, and areautomatically pushed into position and placed on the palletby the robot. Automation also allows for significantly morecrates to move at the same time. Thanks to optimum
capacity utilization, bottles no longer have to be parked to
one side as they had to previously; everything happens
automatically without delays.

RESULTS
Above all, the significantly reduced running costs especially compared to older machines - have proven to bea tangible advantage for the Westheimer brewery after
only a short time. Now that their bottle production line iscompletely automated, they’re looking to further automate
their keg and cask production line in the future.
"The robots run easily and reliably," says Juckenath, who
also said the robots’ low maintenance needs have exceeded
all expectations. "Everything runs perfectly. Maintenanceonce a year, batteries replaced, grease check - that's it.”
There, a BX200L robot removes the bottles from the crates
with a gripper and places them on a conveyor. The crates
are cleaned in a waiting crate washer and fed to the packer.
The empty bottles are transferred to the bottle washer via
a feeder. There, the bottles are first checked for damage,incorrect shapes, and similar factors, and then intensively
cleaned. After cleaning, the bottles are additionally checkedby an inspector. Only the bottles in perfect condition moveon. They are then filled, checked again, labeled, and packed
into the crates provided by the packer - another BX200L.
By switching to double crates, the speed of the packer has

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Corporate Headquarters for Americas
28140 Lakeview Drive, Wixom, MI 48393, U.S.A.
Phone: +1-248-446-4100 Fax: +1-248-446-4200

Acceptance among the Westheimer employees was also
very high and the robots are perceived as a great relief,according to Tolzmann. "In the past, you had to get bottles
out manually, check them, move pallets here, etc. Therobots are a tremendous relief… physically above all."To see this application in action, visit the “Case Study”
playlist on Kawasaki Robotics’ YouTube channel.

KawasakiRobotics.com