A Craft Beer Industry Secret to Retaining Workers and Scaling Production

In this time of inflationary pressure and increasing costs for every portion of your craft beverage business, examining your current practices and processes is critical. Every opportunity to improve efficiency and reduce costs is another opportunity to boost the most important brewery KPI: your bottom line.

Labor costs have always been significant, and the current market has seen upward wage pressures due to a shortage of workers. It’s expensive to recruit, hire, and train, and if your employee turnover isn’t managed, those costs increase significantly.

You not only have to be competitive in the market to attract workers, but you also have to be proactive to make sure the employees you have stay with your organization. This is where an inline can handle applicator may help.

Scale Production and Keep Employees Happy With Can Handle Applicators

Can handle applicators will help you improve efficiency while making a monotonous, dreaded task a much more pleasant, less-labor-intensive activity. In addition to making packaging your product faster and more efficient, this equipment will also effectively allow you to scale production and increase throughput as needed.

At Roberts PolyPro, we design and manufacture low-, medium-, and high-speed multipack can carrier systems that work with our sustainable Craft-Pak® can carriers. Each of our carrier applicator solutions are designed to meet our customers’ needs, production floor configurations, and space constraints.

As an integrated can carrier system, our carriers and applicators are specifically designed and configured to work together seamlessly and at optimum operating efficiency. With our Craft-Pak® can carriers, changeover is fast and simple when you switch between 4- and 6-packs or 12-, 16-, and 19.2-ounce cans.

We stand behind every system and each component in our multipack can carrier systems, which include:

  • 4-pack and/or 6-pack Craft-Pak® multipack can carriers in nested stacks

  • Manual, semi-automatic, or fully automatic inline can carrier applicators

We partner with your canned beverage or craft beer business to ensure you get timely deliveries of our multipack can carriers. You can rest easy knowing their application will be reliable and repeatable. If there’s ever a question or a problem, you can count on our responsive customer service and support.

Roberts PolyPro Craft-Pak® Can Handle Applicator Options

You have three options when it comes to choosing a Craft-Pak® applicator: manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic. Choose the system that best meets your needs and creates maximum production efficiency.

Here, you’ll find details on each of these options, their benefits, and how you can upgrade and expand each when needed to keep up with craft beer industry trends.

Manual

Our MAS2 Manual Can Handle Applicator applies 4-pack and 6-pack carriers at a pace of 40 to 60 cans per minute. It is designed to assist manual application of 4-pack and 6-pack HDPE can carriers to standard format 12-ounce and 16-ounce standard, sleek, and slim aluminum beverage cans.

Operators simply apply one handle at a time to each 4- or 6-pack using our light-weight, carbon fiber hand applicator, reducing the fatigue associated with manually applying traditional bulky handles.

Semi-Automatic

Our MCA10 Semi-Automatic Can Handle Applicator can reach a pace of 240 cans per minute. It’s designed to apply 4-pack and 6-pack HDPE can carriers to standard format 12-ounce and 16-ounce aluminum beverage cans that are already in a tray.

This flexible, semi-automatic applicator is easy to use and maintain. It can be configured with wheels for portability, and its small footprint makes it perfect for space-constrained environments.

In production, corrugated trays containing 24 cans travel down a conveyor to the applicator. The operator manually pushes the full tray into the applicator using a set of guides. When in position, the operator activates the applicator plate, which simultaneously applies four 6-pack carriers or six 4-pack carriers to the tray of 24 cans.

After the can carriers are applied, the full tray is discharged from the applicator and the process is repeated. Changeovers between 4-packs and 6-packs or 12- and 16-ounce cans are fast and simple. This model is ideal for new beer companies and mobile canning operations.

Fully Automatic

ICHA60 Inline Automatic Handle Applicator

Our ICHA60 Inline Automatic Handle Applicator is fully automatic and designed to apply 4-pack and 6-pack Craft-Pak® carriers to standard and sleek aluminum beverage cans. The changeover from 4-packs to 6-packs is simple, requires minimal parts or adjustments, and can be completed in under 15 minutes for 12-, 16-, and 19.2-ounce cans.

The ICHA60 is the ideal choice for breweries and beverage canning lines, offering reliable, uninterrupted handle applications at a maximum rate of up to 60 cans per minute and a small footprint to fit in a single file canning line.

ICHA180 Inline Automatic Handle Applicator

Our ICHA180 Inline Automatic Handle Applicator is fully automatic and designed to apply 4-pack and 6-pack Craft-Pak® carriers at speeds up to 15 cycles or 180 cans per minute. Like the ICHA60, the changeover from 4-packs to 6-packs is quick and easy. The applicator also allows cans to pass through if can handles are not required.

During each cycle, cans travel down a conveyor to the applicator. Cans continue to enter the applicator until a sensor on the applicator detects the presence of 12 cans. An air cylinder-activated flow gate extends across the conveyor to stop the cans in position for the handles to be applied.

After the can carriers are applied, the 4- or 6-packs are discharged from the applicator and the process is repeated.

THA240 Automatic Applicator

Our THA240 Automatic Applicator is capable of speeds up to 240 cans per minute. It is designed to apply 4-pack and 6-pack HDPE can carriers to standard format aluminum beverage cans. Optional change parts also allow the applicator to apply Craft-Pak® handles to slim and sleek size cans.

This fully automatic applicator features a pneumatic gantry system that picks 4-pack or 6-pack carriers out of a magazine and places them on cans in an intermittent operation. During each pick-and-place cycle, the gantry system picks either six 4-pack handles or four 6-pack handles from the magazines and places them onto the 4- and 6-packs.

With both sides of the magazine filled, the machine can operate continuously for approximately 28 minutes before an operator must refill the handle magazines. Reloading the empty magazine is done through the magazine access door, which can be opened and reloaded during continued operation to minimize downtime.

TLHA240 Automatic Applicator

Like the previous applicator, our TLHA240 Automatic Applicator is capable of speeds up to 240 cans per minute but comes with automatic tray loading.

The applicator places the cans in the tray and advances the case to the next section where the handles are applied all at once. It’s designed to apply 4-pack and 6-pack HDPE can carriers to standard format aluminum beverage cans with optional change parts that allow it to apply Craft-Pak® handles to slim cans.

Similar to the THA240, this applicator has a pneumatic gantry system that picks carriers out of a magazine and places them on cans. When can handles are not required, the machine allows the cans to pass through.

Also like the previously mentioned applicators, changeovers between 4-packs and 6-packs or 12- and 16-ounce cans are fast and simple. When reloading the device’s depleted magazine, the operator can utilize the magazine access door during continuous operation, slashing downtime.

Retain Workers and Grow Your Craft Beer Business With a Can Handle Applicator

As noted earlier, a can handle applicator solution provides two main benefits:

  1. You relieve members of your team from being subjected to the monotonous, repetitive, and strenuous work of hand-applying can carriers. People quickly tire of the task, and that often drives them to seek work elsewhere.

  2. A can handle applicator solution allows you to easily scale production. You can increase throughput and switch between multiple pack numbers and can sizes, while using fewer personnel for the task and allowing them to work on other value-add activities.

Roberts PolyPro Craft-Pak can carrier systems come with cost savings, sustainability, high performance, and reliable customer service and support. We even manufacture custom configurations up to 360 cans per minute to meet your unique canning line needs.

Reach out to our team today to learn more about how our applicators keep your employees happy while scaling your production.