Non-returnable instead of returnable PET

Spendrups, Sweden’s second-largest beverage producer, has invested in an entirely new bottling line for non-returnables, to supply the growing non-returnable-PET market. The family-owned Spendrups Brewery produces beer, cider, soft drinks and water. At the end of 2006, Spendrups discontinued the 150-cl returnable PET pool bottle, and introduced non-returnable PET containers, replacing an existing line and sorting system for returnable PET by a non-returnable-PET line rated at 30,000 containers an hour, supplied in its entirety by Krones, including the process technology, featuring a Contiflow beverage mixer and a VarioClean CIP system.
Some keywords for the modernisation project:

• handling all existing container formats plus those planned within the next 3 years;
• improved flexibility for fast change-overs and high efficiency levels;
• integration of a blow-moulder/filler BLOC for optimally minimised staffing.

The Contiform S 20 stretch blow-moulding machine, mechanically BLOC-synchronised with the filler using the new neck-handling transfer starwheels, and the Volumetic VODM-PET volumetric filling system, are key components of the BLOC. Currently, the line is handling the 1.5-l soft-drink and the 1.5-l water bottles, plus the newly developed 1.8-l Loka water bottle, packing them in 8-bottle shrink-packs or 24-bottle retrays. It also features a Checkmat 731 FM-K+L for monitoring fill level and closures, an Accutable for buffering, and a Solomodul labeller. A second Checkmat inspects the bottles for label positioning, the label logo, and the fill level. The dry end comprises a fully automatic Variopac TFS 70 packer, plus two Robot 3A palletisers. Project Manager Kim Pedersen is enthusiastic: “Before this, we’d only ever had one-off machines from Krones. When we visited other bottling facilities, the perfection and the high efficiency levels of he Krones lines repeatedly struck us, which is why I wanted to have a complete Krones line here in Grängesberg as well. Right from the start, all the way through to installation, commissioning and acceptance-testing, the project was handled in a spirit of harmonious cooperation.“