Developed by Sidel’s R&D center, this process was designed on the Sidel Combi, the company’s integrated blowing, filling, capping machine. It proposes a far more economical and environmentally-friendly decontamintion solution compared to traditional processes (rinsing with chemical products and sterile water or gas decontamination).

Innovation in decontamination

The novelty of this system rests in the dry decontamination applied to preforms using hydrogen peroxide vapor (H2O2). Preforms™ are transferred by the neck on a wheel from the preform infeed to the oven entrance where the Predis™ system is located. Nozzles, calibrated to between 120 and 140°C, are used to apply the hydrogen peroxide vapor (H2O2), which condenses evenly on the internal walls of the preforms. Preforms are then heated in the oven to over 100°C. The advanced thermal conditioning and process stability guarantee activation of the H2O2.

Bottles are blown using filtered air, and their transfer by the neck in a controlled atmosphere in the Combi ensures that no recontamination occurs through the filling-capping phase.

A safe, reliable, environmentally-friendly and economical process
Predis™ guarantees 3-log reduction in germs on all bottles. And Predis™ is highly reliable because it offers simplified decontamination that takes place on the smooth walls of the preform. In contrast, traditional systems decontaminate bottles that have unusual shapes (customized by ribs, a waist or engraving), which impede the efficiency of the sterilizing agents used.
Environmentally friendly Predis™ requires very little consumption of chemical products (from 5 to 15 mg per preform, which is 40 times less than decontamination involving bottle rinsing) and no water consumption.
By eliminating the rinser, the number of mechanical parts is reduced resulting in lower maintenance and labor costs.
Predis™ benefits from all the advantages of the Sidel Combi (up to 30 percent smaller footprint and Combi efficiency that’s two to four percent greater than a traditional in line concept).
Bringing the Combi and Predis™ together makes it possible to reduce bottle weight thanks to continuous by-the-neck transfers.

Predis™, the benchmark in ultra-clean
Hygiene and safety are increasingly important to the food industry, especially for sensitive products distributed in refrigeration like milk, fruit juices and ESL (extended shelf life) products. Predis™ offers superior hygiene for packaging dairy products and even extends their best-by date.
Since June 2006, the first Sidel Combi equipped with the Predis™ system has been up and running at Croatian dairy company Lura. It has been packaging 100 ml bottles of flavored probiotic milk at a rate of 14,400 bottles/hour.

Predis™ will be available on a wide range of machines from 10,800 to 36,000 bottles/hour.

The Sidel Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment for packaging liquid foods through its five great brands: Sidel™, world leader in plastic bottle blow molding equipment, Simonazzi™ for filling, Gebo™ for conveying, Alfa™ for labeling, and Cermex™ for end of line equipment.
The Sidel Group has 5,000 employees worldwide and is a division of Tetra Laval.