Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/299589
5 4 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | M a y - J u n e 2 014 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m carton travels about 120 feet from filler to case box in about five min- utes. Hanson said the space was designed to accommodate a sec- ond packaging line (should future growth justify the investment) that would mirror the current line. Most of the wines packaged with the line are produced and blended at TRV, though some are produced at and delivered from of three different materials, with paper as the primary material, along with polyethylene and aluminum foil. The Tetra Prisma has seven lay- ers (from the outside layer inward): polyethylene, printed design, paper, polyethylene, aluminum foil, poly- ethylene and polyethylene. The only material to touch product is food-grade polyethylene. LINE EQUIPMENT AND OPERATION TRV worked with Tetra Pak's Denton, Texas, office on the equip- m e n t p u r c h a s e a n d 2 0 1 3 l i n e assembly. It's comprised of four pri- mary pieces of equipment, or oper- ation stations: filler, accumulator, capper and case packer. Tetra Pak manufactures most of the equip- ment, and helped design and install the line to TRV's needs, which included other components sold as part of the installation package, such as conveyors between equip- ment stations. TRV operates the Tetra Pak line for one 10-hour shift per day, four days a week, with four full-time employees. The line operates at 133 cartons per minute, with a mini- mum target of 6,300 cases per shift (a 12-carton case totals 6 liters). The line equipment is housed in a 5,600 square-foot space. Each Constellation's sister facilities that include nearby Woodbridge in Lodi, Mission Bell in Madera, and Gon- zales in Monterey County. Wine is transferred from bottling tanks and passes through two filtration units with Sartorius filters – first a prefil- ter at 0.8 microns and a final ster- ile filter at 0.45 microns – prior to entering the filler equipment. Tetra Prisma cartons are manu- The accumulator station can hold filled cartons for up to four minutes in order to allow time to clear minor line problems that may occur downstream from the filler. Photo: Ted Rieger