Heineken: Ensuring production continuity with 3D printing

Heineken, one of the largest beer producers globally, operates over 150 breweries worldwide. Among them, a facility in Seville, Spain, crafts well-known brands like Cruzcampo, Desperados, Heineken, and Amstel. At this brewery, beer is brewed, packaged, and distributed across Spain and to other countries. To enhance operational efficiency and maximize production uptime, Packaging Manager Juan Padilla González introduced 3D printing technology at the Seville location.

Production line optimization

The Seville plant is capable of producing up to 500 million liters of beer per year. But Heineken is always looking for new ways to improve its already impressive efficiency. That’s why they started studying the possibilities of 3D printing.

After creating a 3D printing lab, the team set goals to improve the manufacturing process in terms of yield, uptime and safety. Heineken began researching various methods to optimize production machinery. They quickly realized that 3D printing offered them the flexibility and speed they needed, while being affordable and easy to implement.

We are still in the early stages of 3D printing, but we have already seen a 70-90% cost reduction and also a 70-90% reduction in delivery time.

Safety comes first

Employee safety is a top priority for Heineken, which implements advanced safety standards used when maintaining machines. They are applied to almost all brewery machines. When machines are turned off, there are latches that will lock, preventing anyone from accidentally starting a machine while a person is performing maintenance.

The closures are printed in bright red for visibility. Not only was this application helpful, but the added safety feature created awareness and appreciation for 3D printing among employees

Functional parts for the production line

After the initial success of safety locks, other opportunities for 3D printing applications have been identified.

Ideas were researched and new pieces designed. The first of these was to print replacement parts which proved difficult to replace. Outsourcing or importing manufactured parts is expensive and time-consuming. The team quickly noticed that 3D printing not only saved time and money, but was also capable of printing plastic parts that could function as structural replacements for metal parts.

Part design optimization

The beauty of 3D printing is that it’s easy to repeat perfect designs. An engineer can quickly create alternative designs and test parts on site while keeping production costs and times relatively low. Plastic is lighter than most metals and relatively strong when the right design principles and materials are put into practice. It’s also very easy to redesign parts to work even better without the constraints of outsourcing.

At the Seville brewery, Juan’s team managed to replace various redesigned parts with an optimized design. For example, a metal part used with a quality sensor on a conveyor often causes bottles to fall, creating a jam or throwing good bottles onto the floor. The redesigned 3D printed parts avoided this problem, saving bottles, money and time.

Quality control and maintenance tools

Companies routinely print custom tools, jigs, and fixtures. Heineken has created various tools to make maintenance of its machines easier and faster. These tools are typically printed in Tough PLA, which is easy to print with similar strength and flexibility to ABS. One of these tools is the stop tool, which loosens and tightens the guide wheel columns that apply the labels to the bottle. Before adopting 3D printing, this tool had to be customized using CNC machining.

With 3D printing, the cost of producing the tool was reduced by 70% and the delivery time from three days to one day. A simple tool like the Rubber Toroidal Cutter prints in less than an hour, which on average takes more than 10 days to ship if outsourced.

Choose the right material

The Ultimaker range of materials has proven useful for Heineken Spain. Many of the printed parts will withstand stress, high temperatures, humidity or numerous impacts for a long period of time. That’s why it’s so important to have the right materials for your applications.

Heineken Spain uses a variety of Ultimaker materials such as Tough PLA, nylon and semi-flexible TPU 95A material. These materials have excellent mechanical properties to resist wear on the production line. Hard PLA is often used for pushers and tools, while nylon is used for parts that need to work with metal parts. The flexibility of TPU 95A is ideal for bumpers and fenders.

First results of the pilot plant

After using the Ultimaker S5 printers in Seville for a year, Heineken considers the pilot project a success. The results were increased employee safety, reduced lead times and reduced costs for all printed parts.

By 3D printing finished functional parts for the on-demand production line, Heineken was able to optimize functionality and on-time availability. By changing the design of the machine’s functional parts, Heineken increased the efficiency of the line. Customized tools have made maintenance and production changeover much easier and faster for employees.

Heineken notes that delivery of all necessary parts is on average 80% faster than outsourcing. The costs of a printed part compared to a part from previously known sources are also on average 80% lower.

3D printing has proven to be a technology that helps us, brings us value and allows our employees to work more efficiently.

Global adoption of 3D printing

The Seville factory’s success with 3D printing has not gone unnoticed. The company is defining next steps to identify the potential to expand the benefits of 3D printing. Additive manufacturing allows engineers and other employees to consider challenges and opportunities from different perspectives.

Projects and solutions can be easily shared online. This accelerates the global deployment of new applications, as parts can be shipped digitally rather than physically. Furthermore, it avoids international shipping costs and reduces maritime traffic, in turn reducing environmental costs.