A longtime tradition of production and sales of quality wine manufactured in small wine farms throughout Croatia requires a logical need for development of small, automated wine bottling machines, whose main task would be to ensure the maintenance of quality of bottled wine and to facilitate the process of wine bottling. This thesis offers a possible structural solution to construction of wine bottling machine. In order to understand the significance of wine in the world and Croatian culture better, this paper provides a brief history of wine in the world and Croatia. It also emphasizes its global and Croatian economy, considering the fact that it is the most important fruit culture. Furthermore, the process of wine making is also briefly explained and the basic (modern and traditional) equipment used in the process. Hereafter, the existing processes of wine bottling are also explained, the requirements in sterile bottling highlighted, and the basic shapes of wine bottles and caps are listed. Moreover, the thesis indicates the basic classification of wine bottling machines, including the explanation of the way they run, as well as the bottling equipment manufacturers who, among other things, also produce wine bottling machines, some of which are enumerated in this paper. The process of finding structural solutions began with a technical specification of problems, which identified the requirements that device has to meet. Based on the technical specification, the functional structure of the machine was made, while the possible technical solutions for each function were provided in a morphological matrix. According to the solutions of the morphological matrix, three conceptual solutions were generated, and each of the solutions was evaluated accordance with the requirements of technical specifications. The solution with the best evaluation has been further developed in the structural elaboration. A structural elaboration of conceptual solution consists of the required analysis, description of non – standard parts and standard parts selection which includes the list of their characteristics. Furthermore, the 3D CAD modeling was carried out for the purposes of structural elaboration, and the technical documentation was based on the CAD model.
Josip Bešlić
2015
Master thesis
