Grupo Modelo has recently installed a complete keg line from CoMac, an established global supplier of kegging and bottling equipment, in its Piedra Negras brewery in Mexico.
Brewing and distributing Corona Extra, the number one selling Mexican beer in the world, Grupo Modelo is one of the largest Mexican beer manufacturers. It produces 65 million hL of beer annually, released under 13 brands. Under a strategic alliance with Nestlé Waters, it also produces and distributes bottled water.
Grupo Modelo had CoMac install an HS6T medium-speed washing and filling machine, featuring an automatic palletiser-depalletiser machine. A six-head automatic keg washer and filler, the HS6T washes and cleans the kegs internally prior to filling. It processes different keg types without the need for manual changeover. Its keg loading system increases operation times and machine reliability by reducing the maintenance operations required. Both machines have highly efficient, energy-saving motors. The line operates at speeds up to 180 km/h.
CoMac manufactures a full range of kegging equipment for a variety of operations. For microbreweries, it offers semiautomatic single- or twin-head washing and filling units with integrated CIP tanks. Inline five- or six-head machines are suitable for medium outputs. CoMac also has a fully automatic combination keg de- and re-palletiser up to 1200 km/h, a flash pasteuriser with inverter controls, a keg tilting machine, weighing units, keg leakage control units, an inkjet coding station, keg labelling systems and an automatic spear tightening system.