Introducing mACS: 
The Micro-Automated Canning System

Cask is proud to officially launch our new Micro-Automated Canning System (mACS).

The mACS combines all of the best features of Cask's entire canning system family into one precision system: the industry leading fill technology common to all Cask systems, the seaming reliability of Cask’s ACS X2, and the compact footprint and affordability of Cask’s mobile-ready SAMS machine.
 
“The mACS,” says Cask founder Peter Love, “provides the best automated features of our various machines, along with new package-size flexibility -- all in one very compact, mobile and affordable machine. It’s an industry changer.”
 
The mACS can be converted to fill and seam cans of varying heights and body diameters -- from 5.5 ounces (163 mL) to 19.2 ounces (568 mL) in volume -- in less than 30 minutes.  The mACS also has electric cam-driven seamers, three CO2 pre-purge heads, three fill heads, and a post-fill rinser and dryer. It measures just 7’ by 2.5’ and has a very small footprint of 17.5 square feet.
 
“With this machine our customers get highly efficient filling and the ability to create new revenue streams and beverages,” Love says. “They can quickly shift to new can sizes for current products, or jump from beer and cider to soft drinks and uncarbonated beverages such as cold brew coffee, wine and energy drinks.” 

“With its ability to be equipped with an array of automated components,” Love says, “the mACS also allows our customers to scale up the automation of their canning process as they grow and diversify.”
 
Dead Armadillo Craft Brewing (Tulsa, Oklahoma) is now using the mACS to can its beer and expand its product line. “When you add a liquid nitrogen doser to the mACS,” says Todd Phillips, Dead Armadillo’s Director of Operations, “you can use it to can coffee. So after many months of R&D, we’re entering the nitro cold brewed coffee market with some friends at a local coffee roaster. It's a brave new world for us and we are learning as we go, but this wouldn't have been possible without Cask.”

“The mACS supports a larger array of can sizes than any line we have ever seen,” Phillips adds, “and we can change from can sizes, lid formats, and product types with minimal effort.”
 
The mACS conveyor belt can feeder (as found on Cask’s larger ACS machine) allows for adding such automated pre- and post-packaging components as a depalletizer, inline date coder, nitrogen doser, pressure-sensitive labeler, shrink sleever and other components.

The machine’s CO2 pre-purge component evacuates oxygen prior to can filling, while the three-head filler’s unique technology combines fill-level sensors with proprietary foam-control valves. In response to existing customer feedback, the mACS touchscreen panel now allows users to dial in individual fill head settings.
 
Those features combine to produce filled cans with extremely low dissolved oxygen pickup of just 15-20 parts per billion, which is better or comparable to large-scale and much more expensive canning and bottling lines.
 
The mACS fills 20+ cans per minute and 50+ cases per hour with just one operator.