Trade show booth demos usually come with a supplier doing the talking. So it was a nice surprise at the Intralox booth when Ajoy Kapila of Molson Coors stepped up to explain how the company is using micropitch conveyor belts in its breweries. The short version is that Molson Coors has moved away from the side-on, side-off parallel transfers that have long been standard in mass handling. With micropitch belts, containers run end to end in a straight line, with no dead plates and no extra real estate carved out for transfers. Ajoy made the point that floor space is expensive and no plant wants to give it up for conveying when it could go to something else. He also talked about what the layout does for line tuning and maintenance. When every inch of belt is conveying containers, center lines become obvious and it’s easier to know exactly how many containers per minute each section needs to run. Molson Coors already has these systems in its breweries and plans to carry the design into upcoming line modifications. That kind of commitment from a brand owner running Miller Lite and Coors Light volumes says a lot. For any high-speed can or bottle operation weighing a line upgrade, it’s a conversation worth having, and Intralox says the approach applies well beyond beer to other container-heavy CPG lines. Brand owner voices at a booth are rare. This one was worth stopping for. #Packaging #Beverage #Brewing #Conveying #MassHandling #PackagingWorld