Production downtime and unforeseen costs due to faulty marking systems posed significant challenges for Arizona's largest brewery, Four Peaks. Frequent printhead clogs severely impacted production efficiency. The solution came with the switch to Leibinger's innovative printing technology. Thanks to the patented nozzle seal technology in the printers, clogs are now a thing of the past, ensuring smooth, uninterrupted production and maximum efficiency.
At the vanguard of the craft beer industry in the US, Four Peaks is the largest brewer in Arizona and has built a loyal following since it was founded in 1996. Famous for beers such as Kilt Lifter and Wow Wheat, it was acquired in 2016 by beverage giant Anheuser Busch. Four Peaks is therefore not just the creator of awesome beers, it is a modern and highly efficient business, and the person responsible for ensuring high levels of both quality and quantity is Gary Fogg, head of production since 2018.
To enjoy craft beer at its best, you need to drink it fresh. The brewery therefore prints expiration dates on every can or bottle, which encourage customers to consume the beer within 120 days of leaving the brewery. This helps to ensure quality – but it can also create a headache for people like Gary because printing the expiration date can be problematic unless you have the right equipment. With Leibinger printers on every production line, Gary now enjoys problem free operation, but it wasn’t always this way.
Before the new machines were installed, quality issues would often arise as the printheads on the other manufacturers’ printers became clogged. Every 15 minutes, the legibility of the print would be checked. If the expiration date was not perfectly clear, the production line would have to stop for up to an hour while the print head was cleaned.
Even worse, with 250 cans rolling off the line every minute, Gary might find himself with almost 4000 mis-printed beers. That either means unnecessary time and effort washing and re-printing – or the beer gets wasted. And this happened at least once a week, sometimes even every day.
Starting his career in one of the country’s largest beverage producers, Gary recalled similar problems with coding machines: ‘We were printing 24 hours a day, seven days a week and we would struggle with every other brand of printer,’ he said. ‘There was always one down and it had a big impact on our productivity.’
The solution to that problem came from Tim Robinson of RMH Systems, a coding machine specialist, whose advice and support would prove invaluable throughout Gary’s career. Tim replaced the faulty machine with a Leibinger to keep production running.
Fast forward to 2009 and his new position at Four Peaks, Gary faced the same problems with the same mix of manufacturers – and promptly replaced them with the Leibinger printers.
‘When I first started we were doing cleanings every week at least – sometimes every day. Now we don’t even have to do it every month,’ Gary said.
There were other benefits apart from saving time. Cleaning printheads requires solvent, which can have a harmful impact on the environment. If the printhead doesn’t need to be cleaned, you don’t need so much solvent – improving the environmental impact of the plant while also saving money.
Gary also points out the environmental advantage of the cartridges/ bottles’ ‘They are designed to empty completely – so no hazardous waste. With other cartridges, I had to empty residual solvent and ink into a tank and have it pumped out every month by specialists for proper disposal. That takes time and money.’
Breweries can be busy, hot, humid places, which makes coding difficult for some printers, but Gary said: ‘I have seen Leibinger machines working perfectly in possibly the most difficult environment you could find, such as above the pasteurisation funnel where the air is damp, hot and dirty. But it still worked fine.’
Another problem arose with the condensation on the outside of pre-filled bottles. This meant that the soft pigmented yellow ink Gary was using was flaking off instead of sticking to the glass surface. Tim suggested changing to a hard pigmented silver, which adhered better.
Gary summarised, ‘At the end of the day, our job is to brew great beer and get it out there to thirsty customers. And coding should be such a simple task. If it is legible and repeatable and we don’t have downtime, that is all we need. And that is what we have had for years now with Leibinger.‘
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