Australia: Coopers, Australia’s third largest brewer, announced in April it has installed a new KHS Transomat 5/1 Duo keg filler with Direct Flow Control in its Regency Park brewery over a three-day period just before Christmas 2004. Within two weeks, the line was operating at 120 kegs an hour, doubling the capacity of its previous keg filler, which had been transferred to Regency Park shortly before Coopers closed its old Leabrook brewery in November 2001.

Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said a special robot, programmed to unload empty kegs and place them onto the conveyor leading to the cleaner and filler, had also been added. The same robot lifts the filled 50-litre kegs from the line and stacks them nine to a pallet for easy movement around the warehouse.

Dr Cooper said the changes had enabled the keg line to be operated remotely and overseen by Coopers lager cellar operators via the site-wide SCADA system as well as closed-circuit television as part of their normal duties. This had reduced staffing levels on the line from two full-time operators to less than one full-time position and minimised the potential for workplace injuries. He said the new filler had been required to meet the rapidly growing demand for Coopers kegged beers across Australia.