KR QUANTEC packs Champagne bottles at Piper-Heidsieck & Charles Heidsieck
Tradition can go hand in hand with technological innovation, as two major champagne brands have proven. KUKA robots have been unpacking bottles at Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck for several months now.
A very French company with an international reputation
Robot technology for maximum flexibility
In 2011, Philippe Soriano was considering fast and flexible solutions for replacing the old machine, whose job it was to unpack the bottles after they were cleaned. He contacted Fege, a leading integrator in the bottling industry and one of KUKA’s longstanding, official partners.
According to Fege, the greatest difficulty lay in the variety of bottle formats and storage methods (champagne or burgundy wine). Indeed, production varies according to the various bottle volumes (half bottle, 75 cl, magnum) and shapes (champagne, Piper RARE or the new Crayère bottle).
KUKA robot is efficient and reliable
A further advantage of this system is that, thanks to a relatively short gripper, the shelf-mounted robot is able to dive deep into the bottle crate. In this way, it is not necessary to use crates of less depth and capacity.
A decisive factor in Philippe Soriano’s choice was the simplicity of Fege’s solution. “The true difficulty was in making it simple!” he explains. Because a simple system guarantees efficiency and easy maintenance. A further advantage of the robot is that it has very low noise emissions – an essential factor for a handling rate of 4,500 bottles per hour.
Once the cell was installed, we noticed that the KUKA robot is incredibly quiet, a feature we can really appreciate!