One of the most important aspects of making and selling world-class beverages involves a process that the consumer never sees: quality control. Indeed, most bottlers consider QC to be the heartbeat of their production operations, and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Mobile, AL, as division of Coca-Cola Consolidated, is no exception.

To ensure that all products meet its high standards, the bottler uses various testing methods, including regular removal and incremental torque procedures. Yet efficient torque-testing used to be fairly tough to come by, according to Mobile Coca-Cola spokesperson Norm Zgonce, primarily because of human error.  “Our goal was to remove the human element from the torque-testing procedure in hopes of reducing the overall variation within the capping process,” he explains. “At the very least, we wanted the ability to isolate the remaining variability to the capper, not the testing process.”  The bottler also sought to minimize human error, while simultaneously stepping up line-operator involvement in torque testing.

Toward this dual end, Mobile Coca-Cola installed the Torqo system from Vibrac and after a few months of testing, the system went “live”. For its part, the bottler had to enter certain program revisions to the data-management system in its QC lab. (This particular computer allows communication between the various pieces of equipment used in the plant.) “All told, the unit was set up in about 30 minutes,” Zgonce says.  Now, in typical removal and incremental torque testing, a technician removes one bottle from each capper head. The bottle is secured in the Torqo system, the systems “open” key is engaged and the automatic test commences. Once completed, results from the Torqo system can be displayed on a computer screen, sent to a printer or transferred directly into the QC lab’s computer.

 

“Since the system is totally automatic, any individual can perform the test without making a mistake,” says Zgonce. “In addition, the Vibrac system has given us improved test consistency and reduced overall test variation by removing the person-to-person variation from the test procedure.”