Speed check for beer as it flows into barrels

The Leeds based Microdat Company supplies keg and cask handling machinery in the brewing industry. Its entry-level filler is based around a peristaltic pump that is speed controlled by a Lenze SMV inverter.With IP65 enclosure, the SMV inverter is mounted directly onto the machine.

This reduces costs and enables operators to gain easy access to the control keypad of the inverter.

The filler can have one or two filling heads. Usually when filling beer barrels one operator will use two heads, filling one barrel while preparing the second. Barrels are filled to 95% by means of a timer, and then the operator uses a hand control to top up the barrel to 100%.

The SMV inverter drives the peristaltic pump according to a preset time/speed profile which is set to avoid frothing. It is mounted to the front of the filler without a panel and the IP65 enclosure makes it resistant to normal cleaning operations with low pressure jets.

When the pump tube needs changing, a new tube is inched through the pump using the integrated keypad on the inverter.