One of England’s biggest producers of soft drinks has opted for Krones filling lines. With its state-of-the-art production and bottling lines, it is able to cover the entire spectrum of soft drinks, like fruit juice concentrates, fruit juices and squashes, carbonated soft drinks and water. Besides its own brands, the company also produces dealer’s brands for numerous supermarket chains.
For bottling syrup in different flavours, Krones has supplied a complete line rated at 36,000 bph for PET bottles in the sizes of 0.75 l and 1 litre. The line has been integrated into a cleanroom concept, and meets the very toughest of microbiological requirements.

• Blow-moulder/filler Bloc
  The Contiform S20 stretch blow-moulding machine produces 1,800 bottles an hour at each of its 18 stations. The system enables all the bottle formats required for the production process to be manufactured online, thanks to quick replacement of the moulds. This not only ensures space savings in the line layout, but also obviates the need for interim storage of outsourced bottles. Moreover, BLOC-synchronisation with the filler prevents the bottles from being soiled before they reach the filler. The Volumetic VODM-PET filler, Bloc-synchronised with the stretch blow-moulding machine, is a volumetric filling system that guides the bottles by their neck-rings. The fill quantities are regulated to a high level of accuracy using a flow meter. A foam-cleaning feature for the filler’s outer surfaces and the enclosure of the filler BLOC ensures microbiologically optimised product handling.
• VarioFlash pasteuriser
   The compactly dimensioned unit is in modularised construction, and responsively fine-tuned to the products’ requirements, with its components comprising buffer tank, product and media supply, degassing device and heat exchanger. The product, with its specific properties, thus acquires the stipulated shelf-life and retains its optimum sensory characteristics.
• VarioClean CIP system
  The fully automated VarioClean CIP concept is in this line based on the use of hot water and caustic. These media are stored in two tanks, and linked via a double-seat valve rack to the VarioFlash pasteuriser and the Volumetic VODM-PET filler. Maximised operator-friendliness and fully automated sequences ensure meticulous cleaning results in full accord with the production schedule.
• Checkmat FM-X inspection unit for fill level monitoring
  Directly downstream of the filler, the compact-size Checkmat inspection unit  is integrated at the conveyor, so that using X-ray technology over- and underfilled bottles can be detected and rejected.
• Checkmat EM inspection unit for label monitoring
  The single-column unit is integrated into the line directly downstream of the labeller, and uses camera/sensor technology to monitor the presence and correct positioning of the labels. In addition, labels can also be identified and checked for any errors.
• Prontomodule modularised labeller
  The compactly dimensioned modularised labeller excels in permitting the station not required for the particular labelling process currently being run to be decoupled from the machine and replaced by the station required for the labelling mode selected. With this machine, a Canmatic station for wrap-around application of precut labels in a hotmelt process is used, and a Contiroll HS station that handles reel-fed wrap-around labels.
• Variopac Pro TFS non-returnables packer
  Depending on the production programme involved, the packers create multipacks wrapped in shrink-film or with tray or pad support.
• Pressant Universal 1AJ palletiser
  This single-column machine, with its fixed loading station and pallet lifting unit, can handle up to 420 layers an hour, and can be swiftly changed over to the new layer patterns for handling different products/packs.
• SynCo bottle conveyors, MultiCo pack transport and PalCo pallet conveyors
  The conveyor systems have been customised to suit the line concept involved, excelling in terms of gentle container and pack transport, while buffer zones accommodate the products during brief line halts, thus ensuring optimum operational efficacy.
• LDS line documentation system
  Thanks to central acquisition of the production data, the LDS offers a high degree of transparency for line operation and its cost-efficiency. In realtime and historical analyses, trends can be detected and the production performance assessed.