Drinking to success

1 December 2009



Drinktec, Germany’s international beverage & liquid food technology and packaging show in September, presented clever, colourful and highly commercial concepts to tempt its visitors


Despite the recession, business was brisk at Drinktec, with smaller numbers attending but a high calibre of visitor taking part in this international exhibition for the beverage and liquid food technology sector. As if to illustrate the move towards higher level participation, Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, was among the 60,000 trade visitors who had travelled to the show from 170 countries. Dr Klaus Peter Stadler, director of Coca-Cola Europe, Germany, confirmed that ‘this event is key for getting a rapid overview of all the relevant manufacturers’.

And there was no shortage of manufacturers and suppliers to meet. Over 1,400 exhibitors, 800 of them from outside Germany, seized the opportunity to demonstrate their latest development, including giants in the field of filling and packaging.

“We are here despite the current economic climate to demonstrate to our customers that we are innovating to help them meet today’s financial challenges and to provide technology that will help them when they are ready to invest,” said Sylvia Rak, sales communications manager, at Sidel, which unveiled the first of the company’s new generation of fillers have been designed with hygiene, sustainability and flexibility in mind.

The SF 300 FM for carbonated beverages is an electro-pneumatic volumetric filler with 120 filling valves and 20 capping heads. It operates at a rate of 23,000 bottles/hour (for 2 litre bottles at a filling temperature of 18degC).

According to Sidel, the absence of pneumatic connections allows a higher level of hygiene.

“There is a positive pressure inside the machine to ensure that dust is kept out and to get closer to the aseptic concept without being aseptic,” said Andrea Lupi, combi & fillers product manager, Sidel Group, Blowing & Coating. “In this way, the new generation is extending the range of products that can be packed.”

Bottles are moved by star wheels with grippers able to handle various bottle neck diameters and offer change-over times of five minutes rather than the previous 30 minutes, said Mr Lupi.

Sustainability is built in thanks to an external product tank that allows fast cleaning in place, with savings on both water and chemicals – up to 50% in some cases, says Mr Lupi. Use of servomotors brings savings on the fillers’ electrical energy usage.

To support companies in their energy saving and cost reducing initiatives, Sidel’s Life Cycle Management division was on hand to discuss options and demonstrate developments such as the EcoLamp for blowmoulding.

“Around 70% of energy consumption for PET bottling lines is taken up by the blowmoulder. We can help cut energy by 15% using EcoLamps instead of standard lamps on blowmoulders, and with process optimisation can offer 30% reductions in energy use,” said Cécile Dizambourg, marketing & business development manager, Sidel Life Cycle Management, which has conducted trials with Danone on its Evian bottling line in France.

Blowmoulding specialist KHS Corpoplast was celebrating its agreement with Agr International, of the USA, to develop an automated blowmoulder management solution using Agr’s PETWall Profiler material distribution management system and Process Pilot close loop control software. Ready for installation in Europe, on a KHS blowmoulder at Nestlé Waters’ plant in Levissa, Italy, the system will allow PET container manufacturers to monitor the material distribution in its pre-forms, as they are being blown, in real-time.

The system can be used to optimize the blowmoulding process in the light of ambient fluctuations (such as humidity or pressure), or blowmoulder fluctuations, either by the operator altering settings, or automatically using Agr’s new Process Pilot closed loop control software. The PETWall Profiler can measure material distribution in the pre-form in up to 32 different preset places as it is being blown – creating a comprehensive container thickness profile throughout the entire process, at speeds of up to 100,000 bottles/hour.

“Such detailed information and control in real-time allows companies to reduce wastage and one of our partners in the USA – a non-carbonated consumer product manufacturer – has made a return on investment in well under a year,” said Martin Küstner, managing director, Agr Europe.

SMI Group was also highlighting its latest advances in blowmoulding, among other innovations on the stand, including a new palletiser, handle applicator and automated shrinkwrapper. Its Smiform SR 8 model blowmoulder has been developed to meet the industry requirements for lightweighting and can now offer PET 0.5 litre bottles for water produced using pre-forms of under 10g.

“This development gives a reduction of around 50% in raw materials,” said Pietro Volpi, marketing manager.

The company was also demonstrating its new automated shrinkwrapper, the SK 600 T, based on Sercos III interface technology.

“The SK 600 T is the first of its kind and all our machines will be upgraded in future,” said Mr Volpi.

Operating at up to 60 packs/minute in single lane operations, the SK 600T features an automatic format change device at the machine infeed and a new stand-alone shrinking tunnel. Said to be low on energy consumption, the shrinkwrapper has an advanced automation and control system developed by SMI, which allows new pack sizes to be arranged and new format changes to beadopted quickly and accurately.

Shrink film

Many shrink film suppliers were keen to show their environmental-friendliness.

The German plastics specialist Alesco unveiled its compostable shrink wrap film made from renewable raw materials. Bioshrink (pictured on p24) is initially available for packing 6 x 0.5 litre PET or PLA (poly lactic acid) beverage containers and has already been successfully tested by the soft drinks bottler SDI.

“When we introduced our first Alesco biofilm two years ago, we didn’t think it would be possible to present a ready-for-market compostable shrink film within such a short space of time,” said Philip Depiereux, managing director of Alesco, which was highlighting biodegradable Bioshrink as well as its existing, reduced weight, Ecoshrink film on the stand.

Bioshrink film has been developed to give reliable shrinking as well as the surface properties necessary for optimal gliding behaviour. It is available in film widths from 140mm and a film gauge of 20 micron, and can be printed with up to eight solvent-free, water-based colours.

Sleever International introduced its Biosleeve shrinkwrap technology with Ingeo (the brand name for NatureWorks’ PLA, which can be disposed of through chemical recycling and industrial composting), which is also made from 100% renewable raw materials such as sugars instead of oil. Compatible with up to 10-colour, double-sided UV gravure and flexographic printing using solvent-free low energy inks, Biosleeve is designed for use on all of Sleever’s shrink applicators at speeds of up to 36,000 units/hour.

Up to 30% less film can be used for multipacks, with the introduction of a new film called GrabPack, which has been developed by Hartness and RKW). Comprised of a preformed web of printed, shrinkable polyethylene film, which is opened and applied over grouped containers during the application process to capture the entire container from top to bottom, the GrabPack leaves each bottle contained within its own pocket of film. This prevents bottle to bottle contact, and ensures that the multipack is secured and supported as it passes through the heat shrink tunnel in order to shrink the individual bottles together into one solid multipack.

Graphic Packaging International was highlighting its environmentally friendly alternative to traditional Hi- Cone and shrink wrap packaging – the Cap-it for multipacks of PET bottles. Made from paperboard, the Cap-it solution can handle a wide range of bottle sizes from 25cl to 1 litre and packaging formats from six- to eight-packs. The Cap-it machine runs at standard line speeds with a large carton magazine capable of holding up to 2,500 blanks.

“Cap-it was developed to offer an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to existing petroleum-based packages and achieved double-digit growth when market trialled in the USA,” said Keith Brimble, marketing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Graphic Packaging International. These and many other environmentally-friendly, cost saving initiatives attracted significant attention throughout the halls, and will no doubt punctuate ongoing dialogue resulting from commercial discussions started at the show. Packaging Today will ensure that these are covered in future issues.


KHS Corpoplast and Agr International demonstrated how the PETWall Profiler material distribution management system can be used to optimise the performance of blowmoulders KHS Alesco introduced its new compostable shrink wrap film, Bioshrink, made from renewable raw materials Alesco Sidel introduced the first of its new-generation fillers and discussed its Life Cycle Management services Sidel Biosleeve, compostable shrinkwrap technology with poly lactic acid was the focus of attention for Sleever International Sleever International Graphic Packaging International’s Cap-it packaging for multipacks is said to be an environmental alternative to shrink wrap Cap-it

Sleever International Sleever International
Alesco Alesco
Cap-it Cap-it
KHS KHS
Sidel Sidel


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