Small Problems, Big Consequences
In today’s brewing and distilling industry, marginal gains separate the merely operational from the truly exceptional. With rising pressures on sustainability, consistency, and cost control, even the most traditional producers are reassessing every stage of their line.
Yet two issues continue to persist in packaging halls across the globe:
- Residual moisture after rinsing, pasteurising, or filling
- Excessive foam during the final stages of filling and capping
These aren’t dramatic failures or headline-grabbing breakdowns. They’re chronic, silent profit leaks – adding up over millions of units, thousands of hours, and countless wasted litres.
So why are these problems still so widespread? And more importantly, what can be done to address them?
The Challenge of Moisture
Traditionally, breweries and distilleries have relied on compressed air systems to dry bottles and cans before labelling or sealing. But compressed air is fundamentally mismatched to the demands of modern, high-speed production lines with high energy consumption, inconsistent drying, and noise and maintenance issues all leading to label failures and cap misalignment.
A UK craft brewery producing 5 million units per year with a 3% label failure rate loses 150,000 containers annually due to moisture-related rework or waste. That’s not just a logistical headache – it’s a margin killer.
Engineering a Better Solution: The Sonic Air Knife
The Sonic Air Knife system is designed to solve these problems through precise, high-velocity, laminar airflow that delivers uniform drying across surfaces – without the turbulence, inefficiency, or noise of compressed air.
Key Advantages:
✅ Up to 40% fewer label/cap rejections due to reliably dry containers
✅ Energy savings of up to 90% vs traditional drying methods
✅ Improved line speeds, enabling more consistent throughput
✅ Quieter operation, as low as 75 dB
This isn’t just better drying – it’s a smarter, cleaner, and more scalable approach that pays for itself rapidly, especially at high volumes.
The Foam Dilemma: Wasting Product and Slowing Output
Foam is a natural by-product of beer and spirits production, but when it accumulates during filling, it creates major issues:
· Spillage and lost extract
· Slow or stopped filling lines
· Contaminated or overfilled packaging
· Manual intervention or chemical use
Most breweries still rely on trial-and-error, defoaming agents, or physical knockdowns -all of which reduce line efficiency and compromise hygiene.
This can have significant financial implications as if each container loses just 3ml of beer due to over foaming, and you fill 10 million bottles a year, that’s 30,000 litres lost -translating to thousands in lost revenue and wasted raw materials.
The Solution: BubbleTech Ultrasonic De-Foaming
BubbleTech applies targeted ultrasonic energy to collapse surface foam in real-time – without chemicals, contact, or interruptions.
What Makes It Different:
✅ Contact-free ultrasonic wave application
✅ Instant foam breakdown without delays or slowdowns
✅ Reduction in product loss by 1–5ml per unit
✅ Filling speed increased by 10–15%
✅ Improved product purity and reduced contamination risk
BubbleTech transforms foam from an unpredictable nuisance into a controlled, optimised production variable.
What’s Next for the Industry?
As pressures mount – from environmental expectations to market competition – technical agility will separate the most resilient producers from the rest.
It’s not about chasing trends; it’s about identifying points of friction in your process and solving them with technology that fits, both now and as you scale.
At CPA, we believe that engineering excellence begins with listening. The solutions we bring to the brewing and distilling sectors aren’t off-the-shelf – they’re born from real conversations on factory floors, in bottling halls, and across production lines.
If you’re rethinking your operations or simply looking to get more out of your existing infrastructure, we’d welcome the conversation.
Engineered for today. Trusted for tomorrow.
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