Cosmos Brewery (Thailand) Co., Ltd. is a major producer of beer and other beverages in Thailand. It is one of the 3 breweries that belong to the Thai Beverage Plc., the largest beverage company in Thailand, which is also the producer of Beer Chang, the most popular beer brand in the country.
Cosmos Brewery was established in 1990 and started production in 1994. Its modern state- of-the-art brewery is in Wang Noi, Ayutthaya province, and it has also received ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications.
Since 2016, Cosmos Brewery has applied many igus® motion plastic parts from J round bar to bar stock plates and iglidur® J sleeve bearing amongst others in its production line.
igus® relationship with Cosmos started as early as 2016
According to Mr Nantawat O-phawongwatthana, Engineering and Maintenance Manager at Cosmos Brewery (Thailand) Co. Ltd, “Our journey with igus® first started in 2016 at the Metalex exhibition in BITEC, Bangna in Bangkok.” Mr Wanchai Srimanta, Sales Engineer from igus® Motion Plastics (Thailand) Co., Ltd further explained, “Our first encounter with Cosmos kicked off with the first demand for our J Bar stock material, custom machined into special bushings for use with Crown Cork (now known as Crown Holdings) machines at their Filler Unit. After providing samples and a thorough testing period of 2 to 3 years, Cosmos expanded the use of our products to include machined J bar stock for guide blocks, iglidur® Bushing for Key Valves, and linear guide (drylin® R) linear slide bearing for machines needing guide slides, among others.” iglidur® J material bar stock SFRJ-9000 has also replaced all brass material, leading to 100% oil free maintenance.
igus® – German brand known for high quality
Nantawat mentioned that one of the main reasons for Cosmos to decide to use igus parts and services is that igus® is a German brand, known for high quality products, and this resonates with the brewery as it also uses German-made machines at their factory. In addition, igus also offers Food grade and Non-Food grade options which appealed to Cosmos. Nantawat said, “Upon physically examining and feeling our materials, we could immediately discern the quality difference from others whom we have used before.” Initially, Cosmos requested samples for testing, which meant there was no risk involved for them. This, coupled with igus® willingness to provide free trials and the dedicated technical support from its team, really sealed the deal.
igus® parts and materials are now a crucial component of the brewery in solving maintenance issues, enhancing machine efficiency, and extending the service lifetime of machinery. This has led to reduced downtime and spare parts inventory, ultimately saving on overall maintenance costs.
Cosmos fully satisfied with igus® parts/services
“Cosmos is satisfied with igus® products and services especially its timely product delivery and valuable technical support. The collaboration has been positive. We are able to reduce maintenance costs by Bt 753,720 (US$20,782) per year with a bushing priced at less than Bt 100 (US$2.76). Not only that, but we are also able to reduce machine downtime and technician work hours by up to 50%,” added Nantawat.
Cosmos’ experience with igus® serves as a good case study for players in the beer and beverage sector when considering the adoption of igus® parts in their production lines. Demonstrating remarkable endurance, igus® components exhibit a very low wear rate of 20% after 4 years of uninterrupted use. These parts are designed for longevity, allowing for thorough cleaning, sanitisation and repeated use. In actual deployment, igus® products have proven to retain their operational capacity for as long as 8 years before necessitating a replacement.
ThaiBev group, which includes Cosmos, is expanding its operations with new facilities in Cambodia and Myanmar while enhancing its operations in Vietnam. igus® hopes to contribute further to bring positive results to the group expansion in the future.
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