Elite Control Systems unveils intelligent routing system for bottlers

Elite Control Systems has launched a “breakthrough” intelligent routing system that boasts a range of benefits on production speed and efficiency for the beverage and bottling industries.

The system is already being used by Scottish whisky distillers as a control system for tank farms to transfer specific amounts of essential ingredients from one point to another during the blending and bottling process, Elite Control Systems said. The technology can be used to set up production routes in a matter of seconds, and monitor time, temperature and colour of product in the line.

Throughout the transfer process, the system also ensures that the route integrity is not compromised, and that operations are being carried out safely.

One of the main advantages of the new routing system is the time savings associated with automated equipment, such as valves and pumps, when compared with manual systems.

Elite Control Systems technical director Ewan McAllister said: “Routing product to a production line used to mean manually adjusting a series of valves and pumps, which, in some cases, could require up to several days. Because our new routing system is capable of creating upwards of 25,000 routing configurations, it’s just a matter of selecting the source and destinations for a route. For example, say you want to transfer 10,000l of a specific product from blending tanks to the production lines. The operator simply selects the source and the destination on the routing system, and the route is set up immediately. The fact that the system is intelligent means that it ‘knows’ when a particular route is busy and will alert the operator of this, allowing an alternative route to be selected or the transfer to be queued until the route becomes available. This means that the tank farm can run at full capacity, dramatically increasing production.”