Lubrication, Lubrication, Lubrication!

The Beer Bottling Machine has lots of moving parts - that are trying to work in a pretty hostile environment.
Lots of movement - lots of liquid - some of it sticky - lots of cleaning with chemicals.
It is important that all of these moving parts - be kept well lubricated.
Food Grade Machine Oil or any number of lubricant that are commonly used in the food industry can be used. These lubricants can be applied either with a brush or a spray - but must be applied!

If it moves - it should be lubricated! - to make sure it continues to move smoothly.

Here I have an example of the bottle lifting pistons binding - and 'lifting' the entire lifting ring!

 The first indicator of the problem is that the lifting wheels did not drop down and ride on the rail when in the lowest position.

 Further investigation indicated that the entire lifting ring had raised up from it's original location. The bolt that was holding the lifting ring locked to the shaft - created a gouge in the shaft - on it's way up.

This was caused by a couple of lifting platforms that had started to bind - not moving smoothly - as they were moving up and down. This lifted the entire lifting ring!

To repair this:
- repair all binding lifting pistons.
- loosen the setscrew.
- raise - yes raise - the lifter ring and inch or so - so that the scared shaft can be repaired.
- lower the lifting ring back into place
- retighten the setscrew.
- TIP - add a bead of caulk to keep liquid from running down the center shaft.

Listen to your machine - it 'talks' to you every day!

Bottle Rinser

Rinser Adjustments
The whole rinser assembly can be raised up or down to accommodate your bottle height.
The machine should be adjusted high enough to pick up the bottles at the proper height and set them back down smoothly.
Because the bottles can vary in height slightly and not all the rinser heads hang at exactly the same level you may have to have the bottles land a little high to accommodate the variations.

Height Adjustment:
- loosen the bolts on the three legs that support the rinser assembly.
- loosen the two bolts that secure the water line going to the top of the unit.
- under the machine - loosen the jam nut at the base for the threaded rod.
- turn the hand screw to raise or lower the rinser assembly.
- once you are happy with the height retighten the jam nut, leg and water line bolts.

Rotational Alignment:
The (4) bolts over the slotted holes toward the top center of the rinser are for adjusting the rotational alignment of the rinser. 

The two bolt that attach each rinser head to the machine can loosened to optimize the entry of each bottle.

Bottle Jaws:
Before feeding bottles into the machine - as the machine rotates slowly - after it would have picked up a bottle - grab each pair of jaws - and squeeze closed.
If you feel movement:
- check for a weak spring - which may drop the bottle.
- if the spring is good and you still feel movement - you may need to lubricate the jaw arms at the pivot point.
- If the jaws do not open enough to accommodate the bottle neck - check the wheels that open the jaws.
as these ware thin the jaws open less.
- If new plastic jaws have been installed - and the wheel is good - the leading edge of the jaws may need to be ground back to accommodate the bottle neck.

Rinsing Filled Bottles

You had asked about a system for rinsing filled bottles - coming out of the bottling line.

Add a solenoid to your water feed - that is tied electrically into the water feed solenoid for your vacuum pump.
(or pull the water supply from the output side of the vacuum pump water solenoid)
Locate this system inside the bottling line enclosure - so the water falls on the deck and is directed to the drain.
Use these components to set up a spray system - that focuses under the bottle cap.
As the bottle leave the bottling line enclosure you can dry the bottles with an Air Knife.

Part Breakdown Drawings.

We finally have drawings for most of the parts on these machines.
This will help immensely in being able to describe and specify spare parts.

Yes, they are in Chinese - but at least we have pictures and numbers!

Beer Valve

Inside the bowl - the actuating arm should not rub up and down on the beer valve. The actuator should only touch the beer valve in both the up and the down position.



The left hole beer shut-off actuator was modified to be sure that the beer valve was shut off completely.



This operation was performed with a die grinder and carbide grinding burr.

Rinser - crushed roller wheels

I had the pleasure of working - this week - with a technician from the factory in China.

One of the first things that he did was disassemble the rinser heads - and modify the actuating arm that the small roller operates.


Left arm is unmodified - right arm has a new curve.

He used an angle grinder with a sanding disk to reshape the actuator arm to relieve pressure on the the smaller roller wheel.


New spring were also installed. These are a 1.8mmx15mmx43mm



His tool of choice for removing and installing the springs was a 2" binder clip.
He used the black part as the handle - and hooked the spring with the wire loop.

Bearing Grease

If you find that the bearing grease is leaking out of the bottom of your filler you may need to rethink - cleaning the filler. Too much heat can cause the grease to 'boil' creating pressure inside the column and blowing out the bottom grease seal.



With out lubrication the life expectancy of the bearing is very short.

The tapered roller bearing at the top and bottom of the filler column are 180x120x38 Model 32024.

To change the bearings you will need to:
Remove the beer bowl.
This will expose the thrust bearing Model 51126
Remove the threaded collar.
Remove the bottle lifting mechanism.
Remove the gear from the bottom.
Lift the column from the machine.

The bearing can be removed by:
Reinstalling the threaded collar to the column.
Dropping the column on a wooden block.

While this is apart you may want to drill and tap grease fitting - to make servicing easier.

Reassemble with lots of grease!


Temporary larger washer can be helpful while installing the grease seal.

Again - lots of grease!
Note that the lifter deck has been siliconed to the threaded column.
This keep water/beer from dripping down into the tapered bearings below.

Filler 'up ramp'

These bottling lines sometimes have a hard time starting. Part of the problem is that the 'up ramp' feeding the bottles into the filler is at too steep an angle.


This is a photo of the 'up ramp' marked for cutting.




Here is the ramp with the piece that had been cut with a narrow cut off wheel in an angle grinder and smoothed with a sanding disk:

The new 'up ramp' angle:

Once this ramp had been cut the vacuum actuator need to be moved:


Note that the left bracket is now on top of the ring mount. This required that the bracket be narrowed and mounted with (2) 10mm x 75mm bolts.