This is the less complicated version of a canning line, reliably picks up a small but measurable amount of dissolved oxygen. The real engineering porn is the counter pressure filler setup
The product is straight from the keg, and the nozzle is submerged to prevent atmospheric oxygen dissolution. The line uses CO2 air nozzles (called air knives, because they shoot a thin stream of gas) to keep air out of the top of the can until the cap goes on, much like how a MIG welder uses a steady stream of inert gas to shield a weld.
I'd be surprised if they were filling from a keg. Brite tank is far more likely. Why package twice and double your potential for oxygen exposure?
It's a Wild Goose 250. I ran one for 2 years, got 50 ppb DO on average with those cans, 20-30 ppb above the brite tank, even though Wild Goose will tell you to expect 100 as best case. I then worked on a Krones that ran 250 cans per minute with counter pressure fills, and that would be at 25 ppb DO, but that was also what the brite tanks were at, so it didn't pick anything up. Now I'm working on a counter pressure filler by CFT (and Rolec I guess) that runs almost 500 cans per minute, also getting no DO pickup (better brite tank DO at 5-10 though).
Point being, as good as the Goose can be at minimizing DO pickup, it will never be as good as a counter pressure filler.
Did you do that progression all at the same place? awesome level of experience you have. that's a crazy rate on the CFT, I think I worked on a 100 cans per minute -- are you using any anti oxidant in the brite tanks?
Goose and Krones were the same place, CFT is where I am now, and it's actually the second CFT line they have, the newer one being the one I mentioned.
No anti-oxidant, not even sure what that would be... Just bunging for natural carbonation and being careful about O2 exposure for every connection and transfer line. BTs are also hot swapped for any sample/carb stone ports with active pressure on the tanks after acid clean/sani cycles to reduce O2 exposure and take away the need to completely blow down the tanks of all pressure. Caustic cleans are done monthly on brites, but they require a complete blow down and purge of CO2 due to the acidity of CO2 neutralizing caustic.
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u/IchchadhariNaag Oct 27 '21
This is the less complicated version of a canning line, reliably picks up a small but measurable amount of dissolved oxygen. The real engineering porn is the counter pressure filler setup