Aseptic cold filling plants (2)

Aseptic cold bottling plants are being ­increasingly installed in non-alcoholic beverage operations. This can be attributed to more stringent hygiene requirements due to the multiplicity of new beverage brands and associated new, innovative, microbiologically sensitive products and the move away from cold sterilisation agents. Furthermore, quality specifications that have to be met despite dropping hot filling and increased use of PET and PEN bottles or suitable alternatives have provided added impetus.

Commercial flash pasteurisation plants have already been covered in an earlier article in Brauwelt International (4/04, 236 - 241). This part, dealing with plant configuration, describes the theoretical background and concepts and also details the various production areas. 1). 2)..

One for the road

Despite their governments’ insistence that higher taxes on booze prevent binge drinking, when it comes to alcohol, Swedish and Finnish consumers are voting with their feet. They take a ferry south to Germany or to Estonia where beer is not only cheaper but also easier to get. Beer tax distortions around the Baltic Sea give Northern brewers a real headache as personal and illegal imports ­seriously endanger their business.

It must be one of history’s ironies - the philosopher Adam Smith, I imagine, would have described it as an unintended consequence of human action - that Scandinavian consumers, who have been among the fiercest Eurosceptics now take full advantage of the EU’s single market which has swept away internal fiscal frontiers and increased personal imports of alcohol..

Bottling & Canning

Visitors will get in touch with the Counterpressure Combiblock mod. Master RS 40/50/10, pitch 113 mm, for beer in PET bottles, with a capacity of 7,300 bph on 2 Lt bottle. It is composed of:
- Rinser with 40 grippers fixed nozzle and single treatment;
- Filler with 50 high flux filling valves and separated air return system;
- Capper for plastic screw caps with 10 capping heads.
Master RS counterpressure filling technology is very versatile. It is able to handle beer (0-4°C), carbonated drinks (14-16°C), carbonated and still wine, sparkling wine (8-10°C), carbonated and still water, flat drinks by hot filling (80-90°C). The machine is suitable for PET, glass, glass and PET containers..

Enhanced user-friendly packers

Versatile, expandable packers, maximised product safety thanks to new, improved full-bottle inspection, utilisation of modern-day communications technology for effective, user-friendly service support - these technologies are being highlighted at Brau Beviale 2004 by Krones AG, Neutraubling, the world’s market leader for bottling, canning and packaging technology in the beverage industry.
In response to the multifaceted requirements being voiced for versatile packaging options, Krones is now offering a concept called Modulpac, able to handle a widely varied spectrum of packaging jobs.
Thanks to the retrofit options provided by the individual module variants, moreover, it is possible to modify the machine
to accommodate subsequent changes in the client’s packaging concept.

Pressure sensitive labelling station

KHS AG, an international manufacturer of filling and packaging systems for the beverage trade, will be presenting a wide variety of innovative engineering concepts at the Brau Beviale 2004. The focus of attention will be on the fields of labeling, filtration, keg racking technologies, and crate inspection.
With its new Innoket APL pressure-sensitive labeling station, KHS introduces an innovation to the market that, apart from including a wide range of advantages, can be integrated in the proven Innoket KL 2000 generation of labelers. The new pressure-sensitive labeling station is characterized by an exceptionally slender design that makes station redundancy possible and eliminates machine downtime. Whether glass or plastic bottles, cylindrical or contour containers - all are doable.

Bottle conveyers and plant output (I)

The following contribution deals with dependencies of individual parameters of bottle conveyers affecting filling capacity and with calculations required to determine the number of lanes as well as buffer times. It is particularly important that gaps opening up in bottle runs arising from upsets be closed again so as to maintain full buffer capacity. This can be achieved only by suitable control of conveyer speeds and individual units.

Bottle conveyers are the link between individual units in a bottling plant and directly influence the output of the filling line. Conveyers decouple individual units one from another. Buffer time and buffer characteristics have a major influence on performance of conveyers and thus on the filling plant. Good individual machines are not sufficient.

Step by step to aseptic cold filling

Aseptic cold filling is becoming increasingly important in the beverage industry. In order to be able to guarantee the long shelf lives called for by the market and expected by consumers, special measures have to be adopted to minimise the risk of re-contamination.

It is obviously not possible to make a product already on its way to the filler microbiologically sterile again by ACF treatment. ACF involves essentially controlling the process such that risks relating to microbial contamination from the surroundings, i.e. from equipment, valves, apparatus, rooms, floors, ceilings, water drains etc. are eliminated. The process also needs to be regularly reviewed in the context of a validation to ensure suitability for its intended purpose.g. for the injector and rinser.g...

Aseptic filling plants Part 1: Commercial flash pasteurisation plants

In the brewing and beverage industry, flash pasteurisation plants are fully integrated in production and filling processes. In the non-alcoholic beverage sector, cold sterile processes are de facto not used ahead of filling, mainly due to the pasty or hazy properties of some products. Plate units or tube-bundle heat exchangers are used depending on consistency of beverages being pasteurised. This contribution details weak points and problem areas.

Safety requirements for flash pasteurisation plants are becoming increasingly stringent due to the variety of new mixed beverage types and higher quality standards dispensing with tunnel pasteurisation, hot filling or cold sterilisation agents such as Velcorin in glass and PET filling. 1)...

Labelling technology for beer in PET containers

Beer in PET can hardly be stopped. Besides filling technology and closures also labelling plays an important role. Four possibilities are introduced to also provide PET bottles with a multitude of different presentations, which opens up new freedom of design for product marketing.

It PET for beer is the coming trend - and it most certainly looks like it - what labelling technology is then the suitable one, and what are the options available? That PET is here to stay has been demonstrated not least by the figures in Krones’ Labelling Technology Division. In 2002, 9% of the quotations for labellers in the brewing sector already involved PET containers.

Plug & Label
Modularised labellers, however, are the most likely future of labelling technology...

In spring 2003, a total of three inline sorting robots were commissioned for three returnable lines, each for 100,000 bottles/h. In the planning stage, particular attention was given to low space requirements and flexible extension possibilities so as to be qualitatively and quantitatively prepared for further increases in product mix diversity.

hen it became apparent in the second half of 2002 that variety of products had increased considerably, in particular in the 0.33 l returnable category, it could be foreseen that manual sorting using a buffer store would soon run into difficulties in a 100,000 unit line. It could be anticipated that the quantity of incorrect bottles could not be handled any more by simply increasing the number of sorters...

Preserving beer freshness in plastic bottles (Part 2)

The first contribution (see also Brauwelt International, No. 6/03, page 404) summarised the current situation for bottling beer in PET and described properties of plastic bottles made of various materials. A novel secondary packaging of plastic bottles, the "PET pack", patent number 102 17 114.9 pending, was also presented (1). This contribution describes the analytical results of a test series.

The objective of the tests (which lasted for over four months) was to determine taste stability of beer in monolayer bottles in the form of the "PET pack", compared to beer in PET monolayer bottles without special protection and also compared to glass bottles.
Other items included determination of staling flavour according to Eichhorn (2), aniline index (3) and lag time (4, 5)...