Ready to Drink Canning Line: How It Works

A ready to drink canning line is a complex piece of equipment that is relatively simple to operate. Once you understand how a ready to drink canning line works, you have the opportunity to package an array of beverages on the canning line in a range of sizes and shapes.

The starting point of any ready-to-drink canning line is the depalletiser – this machine pulls a layer of cans off the pallet at a time and funnels them onto the machine ready to be filled. Once the cans have made their way onto the ready to drink canning line, the cans are cleaned before heading to the filler to be filled with the desired product. This is also the stage that carbonation and velcorin dosing occurs if required.

After the can is filled the next stage on the ready-to-drink canning line is for the can lid to be added to the can. The seaming of the can lid to the filled can is arguably one of the most vital steps of the canning process. An incorrectly applied seam will likely lead to the can leaking which leads to a damaged product.

Once filled, every single can individually passes through an x-ray machine on the ready-to-drink canning line that analyses the fill height on the can. Any can that is under-filled will be rejected whilst cans filled to the correct height will proceed to be washed and dried. Each product regardless of pack size follows these exact same steps.

Cans then proceed to the pack-off section of the ready-to-drink canning line. This is the stage where cans can be grouped together with pak-tech handles or wrapped in cardboard to join cans together in 4 or 6 packs. These can then be packed in 16 or 24 packs. It is also possible to have 10 packs created, with 3 x 10 packs fitting into a slab. The options are limitless when it comes to the final stage of packing. Slabs are then stacked onto a pallet and wrapped to allow for transportation.

Idyll operates two ready to drink canning lines which we utilise for contract canning and private label customers. Contact us today to learn more.