Geemacher, LLC is a Pennsylvania based keg manufacturer and the first American company to produce stainless steel beer kegs for the brewing industry. Their 30,000 square foot production facility is located in Pottstown and is scheduled to open for business in January of 2014. Geemacher owner and president, John Giannopoulos, decided to begin manufacturing kegs specifically designed for craft and microbreweries after spending nearly twenty years in the brewing industry.<\/p>\n
According to Geemacher\u2019s Plant\/Engineering Manager, Dan Heisig, \u201cMaking kegs is a long process, and there are currently no other keg manufacturers in the U.S.\u201d Dan is essentially in charge of implementing and maintaining an efficient production process for the new facility. Die maintenance is an important part of that process.<\/p>\n
There are several different dies used for keg manufacturing, and Geemacher utilizes everything from deep draw dies to stamping dies to produce their kegs. Once the metal is formed in their machining center, it is moved to a die assembly to stamp out parts. Specifically, Geemacher uses two dies for the top and bottom skirt of the keg, and two dies to form the body of the kegs. Each die is different, depending on the size of the keg. They run one setup for each keg they produce and change settings for the next.<\/p>\n
Changing die settings requires the appropriate equipment. While Dan could use a forklift to move dies from the shelf to the assembly area, he needed to find a more portable, higher capacity material handling solution to change die settings on a daily basis. That\u2019s when Dan turned to Spanco, Inc. to devise the best material handling solution to meet their needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1538,"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-1537","case_study","type-case_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n