MBF y LangeTwins

Langetwins family winery and vineyards from California.

In Acampo, California, just outside of Lodi, lies LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards. This historic winery has been run by five generations of the Lange family, who has deep agricultural ties in the area for over a century. Since 1916, when the first vineyards were acquired, the production area has greatly expanded. Today, their vineyards extend across four northern California winegrowing regions: San Joaquin, Sacramento, Solano and Yolo and grow 21 different varietals.

In 2006, brothers Brad and Randall Lange, with the involvement of their families, decided to open a winery to produce LangeTwins brand wines, as well as provide custom winemaking and bottling services to their customers. In 2013, the company expanded and reorganized the entire production structure, creating a complete bottling line and brand new plant to concentrate the various company departments.

The objectives:

• To install the most advanced bottling line for their wines.
• To offer existing and potential customers the most complete services possible, ensuring delivery of a finished product.

The request:

The request was for a complete wine bottling line with a production capacity of 200 bpm. The line needed to be equipped with the most modern technologies available, to ensure maximum processing flexibility and the ability to adapt to future additions.

Superbloc® and the bottling line

The heart of the bottling line for LangeTwins is the highly-customized Superbloc®. The Superbloc® offers high-efficiency, total operating flexibility, and integrates the rinser, filler, straight corker, screw capper, capsuler and labeller into one machine. The extremely compact and functional design significantly reduces the space needed to position it. It also means that the entire line can be managed by just four operators. The main control functions for the line are combined in a single operator interface area.

"The whole system, the heart of which is the Superbloc®, is a unique concentration of technology where everything, from the washing cycles to the production control during filling, is fully automated and traceable. The line also offers a completely flexible bottle format, cap and label change", added Andrea Ghellere to describe the key points of the bottling line.

Traceability, quality control, recovery and reintegration of bottles

Complete tracing at every processing phase allows the bottles to be followed throughout the bottling cycle, ensuring constant control and maximum quality. The Superbloc^® offers the most advanced and complete quality control system through the support of cameras. All controls ensure a significant reduction of errors and allow different intervention options for the recovery of the raw material (wine), or for the reintegration of the bottles at various points on the production line.

"Such an integrated system among machines and quality controls has never been done before. The dialogue between Superbloc^® and the bottles is continuous and ensures maximum performance and reliability of production", concludes Ghellere.

Sustainability: save energy and save water

The sustainability code of LangeTwins begins from grape cultivation. This commitment is expressed in the Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing certification, a protocol that defines the principles of sustainable viticulture through large and small practices towards sustainability. It includes the use of renewable energy and recycled paper for the company's communications, preservation of habitat for wild animals found in the vineyards and the safeguarding of soil from pesticides and other substances.

Also of great importance to LangeTwins is the ability to consciously manage their water resources.

"To minimize consumption and environmental impact was another goal of the new line. Considerable amounts of water can be wasted in the bottling process, as sometimes, exceedingly high quantities of water are used. On the basis of this philosophy, we designed the Superbloc^® and CIP washing systems to significantly reduce times and the flowrate of water required to wash bottles and the system. Compared to a traditional line, the MBF system developed with Acram saves a considerable amount of liters of water per day, which is then partly reused on certain production processes" confirms Andrea Ghellere.