Efficient and Safer Wine Barrel Cleaning by EZYLift – A Clean Machine Invention

Winery Workers are at Risk

According to the latest edition (September 2016) of Guide to Managing Risks in Wineries by Safework NSW, a number of tasks such as rotating, moving and cleaning requires winery workers to manually handle big and heavy wine barrels. This not only exposes winery workers to severe physical health risks but also threatens the winery productivity and efficiency because of the lost man hours and inefficient operations. This problem resulted in the invention of EZYLift by Ulf Thorstensson. Ulf is the lead engineer and owner of Clean Machine, Adelaide, which is one of the largest dealers of high pressure cleaners (or pressure washers), industrial vacuum cleaners, sweepers, scrubbers, drain jetters, and car wash bays.

EZYLift – An Efficient and Safe Way to Clean Wine Barrels

EZYLift is designed to significantly improve productivity by making the job of barrel handling and cleaning user friendly and effortless. The EZYLift is wheeled beneath the barrel-rack then tilted back to lift the wine barrel onto four support rollers. The rollers make it easy for the operator to rotate the barrel into position so the barrel cleaning head can be inserted through the bung hole.

The nozzle is aligned on a slide mechanism which is articulated with one hand while at the same time rolling the barrel with the other. Once the cleaning head is fully inserted into the barrel it can only be activated by releasing a safety latch. High pressure hot water is then introduced through the rotating barrel cleaning nozzle to scour tartrates from the inside surfaces. At the end of the cycle the nozzle automatically turns off as it is being withdrawn from the barrel. The barrel is then rotated back into position and the trolley is free to be moved to the next rack.

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EZYLift – A Boon for Winery Owners and Winery Workers!

• The operation of the EZYLift is a user friendly process that increases the work rate while at the same time reduces fatigue caused by repetitive barrel handling. More importantly it helps mitigate the risk of shoulder and back strain.
• The EZYLift minimizes the risk of high pressure hot water being inadvertently turned on unless it is in-side the barrel.

The EZYLift has two wheels and handles similar to a trolley, it’s easy to wheel around, move over obstacles and position between the racks, increasing both safety and ease of use.

• The EZYLift uses either a twin or quad pin jet rotating nozzle system connected to a high pressure hot water. The pin jet nozzles rotate around a turret to provide complete orbital cleaning coverage of all interior surfaces. With a quad pin jet nozzle configuration every surface of the barrel is covered within 105 seconds.

The winery owners in Adelaide region have embraced EZYLift as a welcomed addition to their cleaning equipment as they understand not only the economic value delivered by EZYLift, but also value quality hazard-free work environment for their workers.