Al Merlo and Rob Bondi know a
thing or two about the bever-age
business. Since founding AM
Jade Co. in Calgary, Merlo and Bondi have
spent two decades equipping brewery,
winery and distilling businesses, assisting
start-ups and providing business advice
and other services. To top that off, they
are also two of the co-founders of Vil-lage
Brewery, a successful craft brewery
in Calgary.
During those years, Merlo and Bondi
came to see a gap in the beverage mar-ketplace
– an all-in-one multi-container
packaging system capable of filling both
cans and bottles. So they took it upon them-selves
to develop one.
“Rob and I have been in the busi-ness
a long time, and we have been in
many plants and we have rebuilt many
fillers,” said Merlo. “We’re synthesizing all
the knowledge that we’ve gathered and the
knowledge of our extended network that
we’ve developed over 20 years, and it’s been
built into this machine.”
They’ve also benefitted from a few tips
from Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev),
one of the largest brewing companies in the
world and the owner of one of Canada’s big-gest
beer producers, Labatt.
“AB InBev has followed this project
since its inception, and they have advised
us on various elements of the filler. The
machine has been developed with that kind
of guidance behind it,” said Merlo.
AM Jade’s Multi-Container Packaging
Centre is a rotary filler with numerous fea-tures
that include:
• Greaseless design
• Guideless handling
• Belt driven for quiet operation
• Integrated clean-in-place/product
pump/tank
• Multi-container closing turret
• Multi-container filling carousel
• Soft touch multi-container
indexing assembly
• Human machine interface
controlled changeover
• Industry 4.0 equipped via IO link/ethernet
Merlo says it’s a machine that’s defi-nitely
needed in the marketplace.
“What drove this innovation is hear-ing
time and time again, ‘I wish I had a
Filling
a Need
New Multi-Container
Packaging Centre from
Alberta-based AM Jade
Co. is capable of filling
both cans and bottles
By Mark Halsall
20 § POURED CANADA § www.poured.ca
/www.poured.ca
