Mezzanine System Brews-Up More Room at New Belgium Brewing
New Berlin, WI . . . New Belgium Brewing, located in Fort Collins, Colorado, is the third largest craft brewery and the seventh largest brewery in the nation. The brewery produces over two dozen different beers including "Fat Tire Amber Ale." New Belgium prides itself on environmental innovation, energy efficiency, conservation and recycling - striving to make each of these precepts a key component throughout the brewery.
When New Belgium needed to expand their brewery and add a new high-speed bottle-filling line in 2006-2007, they turned to KHS USA, an international manufacturer of filling and packaging systems. As the system integrator, KHS needed to align with several suppliers to produce a comprehensive solution. Integral to the solution was a custom designed steel mezzanine and platform system.
Design requirements of the mezzanine and platform system include the following:
o Overhead platform needed to accommodate declining elevation while providing support to bottle conveyor and depalletizer.
o Total mezzanine footprint of 1,750 sq. ft.
o System needed to incorporate diverse elevations varying in heights from 11'-6" to 7'.
o System needed to integrate stairs, ladders and crossover structures to provide convenient access to conveyor system.
o System required a wrap-around overhead platform that provided access to case palletizer
o System needed to be an aesthetically pleasing solution that compliments the New Belgium Brewing brand image.
o Mezzanine/platform manufacturer was required to provide all engineering, design and
implementation services.
MEZZANINE & PLATFORMS PROVIDE INTEGRAL SOLUTION
KHS partnered with Cubic Designs to design and build a custom system that met the unique requirements of the New Belgium Brewing project. Cubic Designs is a nationwide supplier of mezzanine systems, catwalks and work platforms.
The custom steel mezzanine provided an overhead platform to support a bottle conveyor, high-level depalletizer and ground level infeed of filling equipment. The bottle conveyor makes a long decline from approximately 15' down to just over 10'. The overhead platform incorporates different elevations to accommodate the conveyor. Additionally, the platform includes stairs, ladders and crossover structures that provide easy access to the entire conveyor system.
New Belgium Brewing
The New Belgium Brewing expansion also incorporated an overhead platform to access the case palletizer located at the end of the bottle-filling line. This platform wrapped around the palletizer to allow access to it as well as the robot and conveyors that passed through the center. The entire machine area was enclosed with safety guarding and cages.
According to KHS, Cubic Designs was selected for the mezzanine/platform project because of the company's competitive cost, ease and speed of installation, and the professional engineering services they offered. The powder-coated steel mezzanines work very well for New Belgium and are aesthetically pleasing. New Belgium is very proud of their new beer line, and the mezzanine/platform system support the "look" that they wanted with the line.
ABOUT CUBIC DESIGNS
Cubic Designs manufactures pre-engineered mezzanine systems, catwalks and platforms for a wide variety of industrial and warehouse applications. Founded in 1986, the company has since installed over 7,000 mezzanine systems across North America and other parts of the world.
Cubic Designs mezzanines are installed inside manufacturing and processing plants, retail stores, office buildings, industrial plants, warehouses, distribution centers, institutions, universities, government facilities and more. A Cubic Mezzanine adds a second or third level inside a facility and thereby doubles or triples the existing area. Typically, these mezzanines create new production, office, storage or assembly space, locker rooms, parts departments, stockrooms, cafeterias, company records
storage and work platforms.
Cubic Mezzanines are custom designed and backed by a Lifetime Structural Warranty. All mezzanine drawings and calculations are stamped by an on-staff, licensed professional engineer to assure the customer of total safety and structural integrity. All details are covered from determining application needs and on-site measurements to complete mezzanine design, fabrication and installation.
The company is headquartered in New Berlin, Wisconsin and has a 74,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility - complete with custom metal forming operations and an oversized powder coat paint line - located in central Wisconsin. For additional information, call Cubic Designs at 800-826-7061 or visit the company's web site at www.cubicdesigns.com
