Homogeneous | In November 2017, the private brewery Erdinger Weißbräu Werner Brombach GmbH, Erding, Germany, inaugurated a new bottling line. The brewery also invested in a new central sorting facility, which ensures the supply of all three filling lines with pure empties.

Nanjing Ziquan, one of China’s leading co-packers, has turned again to to the Switzerland-based company to increase its hot fill production capacity of Mizone, a functional drink brand particularly popular in China and packaged in PET, for which consumption is growing. The new line – running at a speed of 36,000 bottles per hour (bph) – follows positive feedback on a similar complete hot fill PET line installed in 2013. It brings the total number of hot fill lines installed in the Nanjing plant to three. The Chinese co-packer were looking for a solution which was respecting the highest hygienic standards required by its customer, while paying close attention to cost-efficiency so to keep the positive trajectory of its profitability.

Grippy lightweights | The water market is growing worldwide. How beverage producers are meeting the increasing demand and preparing themselves for future growth in this segment is illustrated by the example of the Butsifal Group in Uzbekistan. With a high-performance KHS filling and packaging line for PET bottles the beverage producer founded in 2009 is challenging the supremacy of local market leaders and even doing business beyond its own national boundaries.

With the Innoket Roland 40 the filling and packaging systems manufacturer has launched a compact labeler to market. The Innoket Neo’s little brother has a capacity of 2,500 to 25,000 containers per hour and is thus specifically tailored to the requirements of the food industry. The Innoket Roland 40 can be fitted with various labeling stations and is characterized by its ease of use and the accustomed high quality offered by the company.

After the fusion of Bucher Filtrox Systems AG and Bucher Unipektin AG at the beginning of 2017, a new department – Competence Center Filtration – was founded.

Starting January 1, 2018 Thiele Thechnologies, Minneapolis/USA presents two new divisions.

It’s no secret that the per capita consumption of beer has been declining for years and that breweries have to come up with new ideas to stay competitive. The family brewery Ketterer in Hornberg, Germany invests a lot in order to be able to brew their beers with the highest possible quality and efficiency. The most recent project had to do with level measurement in the various tanks of the brewery.

For over 60 years, beer has been filled into cylindrical beer barrels – kegs – and is dispensed in the catering industry, at events and other occasions. As kegs are designed for frequent re-use and longevity, only specific forms of damage can render a keg completely useless. In almost all instances, damage can be repaired, maintaining product quality, customer satisfaction and filling line efficiency at a high level.

Belonging to the latest generation of isobaric electronic fillers, a monobloc supplied to Morocco can process up to 24,000 cans/hour in the most popular formats. The Sacmi ECF, a filling solution for both carbonated and still canned drinks, is the ‘star’ of a key order for that country.

Two complete filling lines supplied to the area distributor of Sacmi’s water bottling systems, the Memco Group (Middle East Factory for Machine Company, an important firm on Saudi Arabia’s water and juices market). The heart of this order consists of the Sacmi stretch-blow moulders designed for the manufacture of small and medium formats.

The trend to offer plastic non-returnable bottles for beverages continues unabated. This tendency is currently reinforced by conversion from returnable to non-returnable containers. Saving on material may lead to instability of load units. What is the impact of various stretch-wrapping methods on stability? Using different wrapping modes and a static “stress test”, the behaviour of load units is being investigated at VLB Berlin.