The competition entry from the students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University was a design for a Bottling Production Line System.

Competing Students - Linton Ritchie; David Minné; Drew van der Riet; Ahsan Ahmed

Email us for more information about these students or their Bottling Production Line System.

1. Introduction

The design presents a variable speed bottling production system that can provide options to reject and remove faulty bottles, fill, cap and label acceptable bottles, load the bottles into a crate and then move the crate to a chosen destination. The entry suggests that a crate (six bottles) can be produced in under three seconds.

The design is made up of the following main elements:

* Conveyor system

* Rejection process

* Rotation disk

* Bottle collection, separation and pick and place gripper system

* Crate collection.

2. Conveyor System

The modular conveyor system was designed with the Bosch Rexroth products in mind and allows for linear speeds of between 0.11m/s and 0.5m/s. The conveyor system allows for the analysis of bottles (to identify flawed bottles for rejection an acceptable bottles for filling), filling, capping and labelling. And then finally for pick and placing into creates for distribution.SEW Eurodrive motors were selected to drive the conveyor.

3. Rejection Process

Inspecting suitable bottles for filling is obviously important for any bottled product. An inspection unit will identify flawed bottles and will eject them with a pneumatic cylinder into a rejection bin.

4. Rotation Disk

Once bottles have been selected for filling, they are moved on to the Rotation Disk where filling, capping and labelling of bottles is completed. Completed bottles are then diverted onto two parralel conveyor belts where they are positioned for the pick and place mechanism.

5. Bottle Collection, Separation and Pick and Place Gripper System

Once three completed bottles are detected on either side of the conveyor belt, a signal is sent to the pick and place mechanism. The gripper design, made up of two FESTO Proportional valves with directional control, allows for the collection and deposit of six bottles every cycle. The bottles are not directly clamped but rather fixed in place around the neck.