Introduction

Cooley Distillery is an Irish Whiskey Distillery located in Dundalk, Ireland & owned by the American multi-billionaire company Beam Suntory.

Producing some well-known Irish Whiskey brands such as, Kilbeggan, Connemara, Tyrconnell & is the owner of over 300 medals since opening including awards “European Distiller of the year” in 2008 & 2009 and “Distillery of the Year” in 2008.

Cooleys distillery required a new fully automatic packaging system for their bottled cases in Dundalk. The system needed to be fully automatic with a palletiser capable of forming 19 different pallet layouts of various cases and sizes to then be wrapped ready for distribution.

Blackstar Handling Systems were approached by Goliath Packaging on behalf of Cooleys to supply, integrate and commission both palletiser, Stretch Wrapper & conveyors for the full system. Providing packaging solutions to clients all across Europe, Blackstar have a lot of experience integrating Palletisers & Stretch Wrappers.

Solution / Palletiser

For the palletiser, Blackstar decided to go with the Alto Model by Lita.

The Alto is an Automatic high‐level infeed layer type palletiser with steady pallet, suitable for handling RSC cases and shrink‐ wrapped packs. Capable of layering all pack dimensions & pallet layouts required by Cooleys, & with a twin-infeed system to achieve high inputs of 60 packs/minute. The Alto was a perfect choice for achieving all the customers’ requirements.

Palletiser Specification

Manufacturer: Lita

Model: Alto DEM

Pallet Size: 800 x 1200 plus 1000 x 1200

Pallet Height: 2000mm

Layer Weight: 300Kg

Electrical supply: 415 v /50Hz

Installed Power: 8.5 TO 14Kw

Air supply: 6 Bar

Pack Dimensions:  Min 210 x 14 x 120 - Max 500 x 400 x 350

Speed:Up to 60 packs/min

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Solution / Stretch Wrapper

To complete the packaging Cooleys required a wrapping station that could integrate easily into the automatic wrapping line. Blackstar went with the Octopus Junior from ITW Mima. The Octopus Junior uses the unique wrapping method of the high-speed ring wrapping technology, wrapping product pallets in the best possible and most economical way. With separate starting, wrapping and finishing tensions in the wrapping process & an automatic sealing and cutting device. The Octopus Junior is a trouble free, fully automatic & perfect for the customers’ needs at the Distillery.

Stretch Wrapper Specification

Manufacturer: ITW Mima

Model: Octopus Junior

Pallet Size: 800 x 1200 plus 1000 x 1200

Pallet Height: 2400mm

Pallet diagonal: 1800

Electrical supply: 415 v /50Hz

Installed Power: 5 Kw

Air supply: 6 Bar

Pack Dimensions: Min 210 x 14 x 120 - Max 500 x 400 x 350

Speed: Up to 50 pallets per hour

Stretch film reel: 500mm, Max Dia 300 mm, Core Dia 76mm

Stretch film thickness: 17 to 30 microns