Flexible spirits bottling

Under a contract packaging concept, a container glass manufacturer is operating filling lines for glass bottles. Following an installation time of approximately two years, five complete lines are now available for this purpose, two of which are predominantly earmarked for bottling wine in containers ranging in size from 660 to 1125 ml. In order to provide maximised flexibility for further bottling orders, the machinery involved has been designed so as to ensure that spirits and RTD products can be handled in addition to wine. Lines 1 and 2 each achieve a speed of 24,000 bph when handling bottles with a volume of 750 ml. The lines feature well-nigh identical machinery and specifically incorporate the following models:

• Pressant Universal depalletiser
  Dependable bulk glass handling for the high-quality spirits bottles is assured by the Pressant Universal. A pusher for centring from four sides, and a layer centring feature below the sweep-off level, combine to ensure gentle, reliable bottle handling. The modularised construction of this machine means it can be swiftly adapted to suit line and product requirements.
• Linatronic empty-bottle inspector
  The new bottles are monitored in the Linatronic inspector before any further handling. This machine detects defects like damage to the sealing surface, the base or the interior sidewall. Faulty bottles are rejected.
• Rinser-filler Bloc
  Following a rinsing stage in the Variojet rinser, the bottles are filled in the Mecafill VKPV-CF filler. In addition to pre-evacuation for oxygen-sensitive beverages, this electro-pneumatic filling system can also perform a fill level correction upon completion of the filling operation. This is a crucial machine feature in the case of wine and other products that require special evidentiary duties for the fiscal authorities. The counterpressure filling system enables the machine to handle both still and carbonated beverages.
• Checkmat FM-X inspection unit
  The Checkmat inspection unit monitors the fill level directly downstream of the filler Bloc. The system is based on X-ray technology, and can be used for both foaming and non-foaming products.
• Topmodul labeller
  The modularised machinery concept enables unneeded labelling stations to be simply decoupled and a different station used when changing over to a different labelling process. This simplifies change-overs between cold-glue, hotmelt or pressure-sensitive labelling.