Dairy bottling line retrofit — 18% throughput, 62% fewer rejects
Replaced a 1998-era controls stack with modern PLC + vision while keeping the existing filler and capper steel.
- Client
- Midwest Dairy Cooperative
- Location
- Wisconsin, USA
- Capabilities
- Retrofit & Upgrades · Machine Vision · Service & Support
The challenge
Aging Allen-Bradley SLC 500 controls were end-of-life. Spare parts were on the gray market and a single PLC failure had cost the plant a 14-hour outage the prior quarter. The line ran short of takt by 12% and reject rate had crept above 4%, mostly from capper torque drift.
What we built
We swapped in a CompactLogix 5380 PLC, FactoryTalk Optix HMI, and added two Cognex In-Sight 3800 cameras for fill-level and cap-presence inspection. The existing Krones-style filler steel and Federal capper bowl were retained. Commissioning ran in a planned 9-day shutdown.
Key equipment
- Rockwell CompactLogix 5380
- FactoryTalk Optix HMI
- Cognex In-Sight 3800 ×2
- UL 508A panel rebuild
From the floor
Illustrative image — representative of project scope; customer-identifying details have been removed.
Results
Six months post-startup the line averages 18% above pre-retrofit throughput, reject rate sits at 1.5%, and the plant has had zero controls-related downtime.
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