Products
Cooperage Equipment
Cask Hardener
The FCE Hoop Driver aka cask hardener uses robust hydraulics to press cask hoops over the taper and harden the cask. Capable of all normal sizes from ASB, hogshead, puncheon and butt including powered cask rotation and cask kicker. It is fully PUWER compliant with light curtain estops and achieves a safety performance level of PLd. Are you interested in minimising cask handling? Ask us how we can customise a hoop driver to meet your process needs including rear cask ejection and integration into conveyor or robot fed systems?
Rivet Machines
FCE rivet machines are utilised in cask refurbishment to resize hoops. The 4 stages of rivet removal, hoop flattener, new hole punch and rivet former share a common oil supply for ease of maintenance and can be tied directly into site dust extraction. They are fully PUWER compliant with the added benefit of fully guard-less mechanisms on 3 of the 4 machines.
Cask Stripper
The FCE cask stripper is generally used in cask refurbishment to remove quarter, bilge and end hoops. One set of hoops is usually left on to prevent the cask from collapsing, often the bilge set. Removing the hoops allows the cooper to remove cask ends to enact repairs which then permits cask shaving and re-charring. The hoops being off the cask also presents an opportunity for the FCE rivet machines to do their work in resizing hoops prior to reinstallation and cask hardening at the FCE Cask Hardener.
Pressure Test Station
Our cask pressure test station is a safe and innovative upgrade from the old rubber bung and ‘waltzing’ a water filled cask. With the FCE locking bung secured in the cask, the panel of the pressure tester then provides a metered pressure over a set duration. The panel then provides a pass or fail of the test. When paired with a sonic imaging machine we can visualise leak points and send for repair, all without water.
Other Cooperage Equipment
We also manufacture windlass, cask shaver, cask charring, a range of cutters for boring bung holes and trepanning bungs, all with innovative replaceable blades. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
Site Trailers
Maturation site cask trailers
FCE fabricate and maintain a wide range of bespoke site trailers for transporting whisky casks around maturation sites. Our range covers shunter, truck or tractor towed; bilge or palletised casks; braked or unbraked and can be customised to match your loading and offloading requirements.
Bulk Powder Handling
Hogan Vibratory Bin Discharger
Pictured is a 600x600mm FCE Hogan Vibratory Bin Discharger with bridge breakers, but they can be customised to suit most hoppers and provide excellent control of powder discharge.
The Hogan Bin Discharger, owned and manufactured by FCE for many years was invented by John Hogan, who won the first UK-wide Tomorrow's World inventors' competition for the HBD, back in the 1970s. The unit pictured will be put into service discharging quick drying concrete powder for a major manufacturer.
Paper Pulp Processing
Taylor Stiles Dicing Cutters
The FCE dicers are designed to produce pellets or cubes from material extruded or rolled in sheet form. An example of which would be paper pulp which is cut into uniform squares to provide standard fibre lengths which are useful for filter paper manufacture or for use as pharmaceutical filler material. The stock material is first slit lengthwise by opposing sets of circular knives. The slit strands ar then fed to the cross cutter head by pressure rolls which hold the material close to the point of cutting. The shear cutting fly knives on the rotary cutter head make the cross cut accurately and cleanly against an adjustable bed knife, with the cut pellets dropping directly onto a chute or conveyor.
Trailer Safety Equipment
Trailer Support
The FCE hydraulic trailer support has been engineered to improve trailer safety when forklifts are operating in a trailer. They provide cost effective additional support to the parked trailer when the shunter is not present and the trailer legs are deployed. The cross beam is raised by two hydraulic rams until it touches the underside of the trailer chassis, compressing the soft tyres of the trailer support. This is usually a hand pump unpowered application for simplicity, but may be powered if circumstances require.
Trailer Support with Forklift Pockets
The trailer support is also available in forklift configuration, for use in areas where personnel traffic is limited.