As one of the world’s leading providers of packaging solutions, Sidel specialises in offering state-of-the-art engineering combined with expert support during the set-up stages. Its beer line demonstrates Sidel’s commitment to efficiency and care for the environment. Several elements within the line are controlled by servomotors, including the filler and the labeller, which allows efficient, flexible and sustainable production at low noise levels. Energy consumption of all modules is kept at a minimum.
The complete line consists of the SF 300 LP filler, the Aidlin 24CR crown feeder, the SL 90 labeler, the Swing pasteurization system, the AQ-HC accumulation table, the Incarobot/Decarobot crater/decrater, and the innovative pairing of the Axo-Smart layer forming system and Robo-Column palletizer.
Hygienic filling and capping
Sidel’s new level-probe electronic filler, the SF 300 LP, features electro-pneumatic components which are integrated in the filling valve as well as self-draining surfaces with high-standard finishes.
The filler meets the highest hygienic standards in an environmentally friendly way. Its drives, located in the base, consist of servomotors only, limiting the consumption of electric energy. An exernal product tank with very fast ‘cleaning-in-place’ further reduces the amount of necessary water and chemicals to a minimum.
The SF 300 LP can be combined with an ultra-clean crowner. The crowns are fed to the exposed filler by an Aidlin 24CR which is designed for very high speeds of 1,350 crowns per minute. “For the first time, we will demonstrate our new patented Aidlin ‘waterfall’ system,” said Marcel Krauth, Senior Executive Vice President of Beer Market Development at Sidel. “This system takes advantage of gravity, which makes it highly reliable as well as offering greater hygiene and performance.” Its automatic, telescopic chute guarantees intervention-free adaptation to all bottle height formats and offers greater reliability of fine adjustments.
SF 300 LP is also very flexible when it comes to format changeover and has no special maintenance requirements. The contact surfaces of the product tank have been reduced by 80 per cent compared to a conventional ring bowl. This means that there is no oxygen absorption, thus guaranteeing a high-quality product.
Labeling with maximum flexibility
The next module in the line, the SL 90 labeler, meets the growing market demand for both paper labels applied with cold gluing and self-adhesive transparent labels.
Just as the filler, the labeler is entirely driven by servomotors, making it particularly efficient and flexible. With no gears at all, maintenance and format changeovers have been greatly simplified.
Labels are centered electronically by a vision system combined with a servomotor drives system. This ensures that even the most complex formats are perfectly positioned.
SL 90 can also handle very lightweight self-adhesive labels. An air system controls the tension of the film, reducing mechanical stress. Since the machine can be cleaned very quickly, savings in energy consumption are optimized.
Eco-friendly pasteurizing
Sidel’s patented pasteurizer, Swing, is another example of an efficiently working module with reduced energy consumption. Compared to traditional pasteurizers, Swing’s features enable a reduction in energy consumption of 25 per cent: all pasteurization zones are served by a single heat exchanger rather than one per zone. A single ring circuit ensures that water is kept at a constant temperature and only distributed to the various zones as required. Within the whole pasteurization process, thermal energy is only required to heat or cool the product, and not all the water contained in the process buffers. This is achieved by a spraying system.
Accumulating bottles in half the usual space
The latest generation AQ-HC accumulation table is compact, energy efficient and achieves high speeds of up to 160,000 bottles per hour. Thanks to its compact configuration, its footprint is no larger than the bottle accumulation space. At high speeds, the bottles are handled by a single accumulation table rather than the traditional two tables, which results a reduction in energy consumption of 50 percent.
Packaging even the lightest packs
The end of line on show at Drinktec is made up of the classic automatic Incarobot/Decarobot crater/decrater and the innovative pairing of the Axo-Smart and Robo-Column systems.
Axo-Smart is a layer-forming system for palletizing all kinds of secondary packaging, including very lightweight containers and packs, which are most ecological. As a modular system, it is particularly flexible in terms of layout and production requirements. Similarly, because of its reduced footprint, the automatic Robo-Column palletizer/depalletizer can be adapted to various space requirements and is very versatile in terms of working area and trajectories.
Sidel’s latest beer line will be in action in Hall A6 – Stand 326 at Drinktec 2009 in Munich, Germany, 14-19 September 2009.
Press release
The Sidel Group
With over 30,000 machines installed in 190 countries and annual sales of 1.19 billion euros in 2008, the Sidel Group is one of the world leaders in solutions for packaging liquid foods including water, soft drinks, milk, sensitive beverages, edible oil, beer and other alcoholic beverages. Sidel currently has production facilities in a total of 13 countries as well as sales and service branches centrally located in some 30 countries. Worldwide, more than 5,550 employees supply customers with complete bottling solutions that include package design, line engineering, packaging machines and related services. Find out more about Sidel at www.sidel.com