Bottling beverages such as fruit juice, CSD, tea, water, flavored water, isotonics, milk and dairy products, means satisfying a number of requirements: guaranteeing biological, microbiological and bacteriological stability and safety while also protecting the product’s taste and organoleptic properties. All of these constraints have to be taken into account, along with imperatives such as beverage shelf life, compliance with specifications, high output rates, sustainable development, etc.
Since September, Sidel is proposing to extend to the installed base all of the systems designed to improve product hygiene while optimizing product quality.
Predis™ and CapdisTM: Dry decontamination of preforms and caps
Unique in the world and already sold in 30 models for all applications, Sidel’s Predis™ system is used to sterilize the PET preforms instead of the bottles. The principle is based on depositing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) vapor on the inner walls of the preforms via condensation. The preforms are heated to more than 100°C in the oven, where heat treatment performance and process stability ensure H2O2 activation and completely safe production: 100% of blown bottles are produced from decontaminated preforms.
Advantages are numerous: no water consumption (200-300 m3 of water savings per day, with respect to traditional solutions), little chemical usage (savings of 150-200 L per day), no liquid effluents and no rinser needed. The low H2O2 concentration and the reduced use of preservatives not only optimize the product’s organoleptic quality but also help improve brand image, by highlighting a more natural product.
The product also has better quality on the best-by date, which means that the use-by date can be extended.
Since September, this system, which was previously sold with SBO Universal™ blow molders and Combis, is now available for adaptation to already installed equipment. Located between the preform feeder and the oven infeed, Predis™ has a small footprint, which makes installation easier and makes it compatible with output rates up to 36,000 bottles per hour for mineral water, fruit juice and dairy products. The same dry decontamination principle is also used for caps with the CapdisTM system.
From blow molding to conveying
Sidel also offers other retrofit solutions to improve bottling line hygiene: filtration (0.01 micron) of the air in the blowing circuit, reaching the same level as in an aseptic machine; sterile air conveying, which is obtained by adding filters in order to preserve the environmental quality of the bottles during transport; aerolic protection of filling/capping by use of a closed safety cabin with sterile air (by laminar flow or by overpressure); and finally, improvement/individualization of the CIP Skid in-place cleaning system.
This innovative equipment is now easily adaptable to several types of lines, depending on configurations, from the simplest (no conveying) to the most complicated (e.g. with transport and depalettization). These solutions bear witness to Sidel’s constant commitment: to help its customers improve the quality of their end product.
About the Sidel Group
With more than 30,000 machines installed in 190 countries and with annual sales of 1.19 billion euros in 2008, the Sidel Group is one of the world’s leaders in beverage packaging solutions: water, carbonated soft drinks, milk, sensitive beverages, oils, beer and alcoholic beverages. Sidel has production sites in 13 countries as well as sales and service offices in 30 countries. Around the world, the Group’s 5,550 employees provide customers with complete bottling solutions, including package design, line engineering, packaging machines and related services.
