Design and development of bottle washer machine for small scale beverage industry

The conventional bottle washer machines are suitable only for medium scale and large scale beverage industry due to their high bottle washing capacity and mechanical and control complexity. This paper proposes the design and automation of the economical bottle washer machine for the small scale beverage industry without compromising its control capabilities. The importance and requirement of the bottle washer machine in the beverage industry has been discussed. The design of the proposed bottle washer machine for RGBs (Returnable Glass Bottles) has been created in the Creo software. The different treatment zones and working of the bottle washer machine has been discussed. The bottle washer machine has been automatized using the Siemens S7-317-2-PN/DP PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and programmed using a ladder diagram in the SIMATIC Manager. The level control for different treatment zones is achieved by means of limit switches and temperature control for different treatment zones is achieved by using Pt1000 RTD, SSR (Solid State Relay) and heater. The different control schemes for the temperature control has been discussed, implemented and compared. The results show that the PID temperature control is the most effective control scheme for the temperature control of the different treatment zones. The implementation of the PID temperature control and auto-tuning of the sample process has been shown. The holistic control of the bottle washer machine also has been discussed and assessed.