Energy Drinks in der Dose – Krones füllt Red Bull in China ab

With its expanding share of the Chinese market, Red Bull has invested in an expansion project for filling the famous energy drink in cans. In all, Red Bull has installed no fewer than five Volumetic VOC canning lines, each rated at 36,000 cans per hour or 72,000 cans per hour. These five Krones lines account for 70 per cent of the entire production output: 3,600 cans a minute out of 5,100 cans a minute in all the facilities combined.
The filling operation is similar in construction for each of the lines. First of all, the cans are depalletised by a Pressant Universal featuring a high-level discharge. They are then hot-filled by a Volumetic VOC-G with the energy drink, flash-pasteurised at 85 degrees Celsius, before being seamed. The filler is enclosed, in addition entirely walled in, and accessible only via an airlock with a disinfection bath for the operator. After the cans have been filled, their fill level is inspected by a  Checkmat FX using X-rays. They are then recooled and assembled into 12-can (2x6) shrink-packs by a Variopac Pro non-returnables packer. A Wrapapac carton packer combines two shrink-packs at a time in 24-can cartons. After the various inspection and date-coding steps involved, the cartons are passed in two lanes to a MultiDivider grouping station, which creates the layer pattern for the Pressant Universal palletiser.
Red Bull China appreciates the responsive supply of spares and the high level of service support readiness that are assured by Krones Life-Cycle Service Taicang. It’s very important that Krones maintains a service support presence in China, since this reduces line downtimes and if there are any problems encountered Krones’ service people swiftly arrive to sort them out, emphasises Cheung Lap Kong, Vice General Manager and General Engineer at Red Bull Co. “We have the new lines overhauled once a year under a service agreement, which covers spares, maintenance and servicing.”