Fonte Plose: core competence mineral water in glass bottles

The family firm Fonte Plose in Brixen, South Tyrol, has over recent years gradually installed an entire new Krones line for returnable glass bottles. Plose’s output goes into the health markets of Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2004, almost 40 million units were filled. The water’s quality is the main reason for its being filled solely in glass bottles. This is why Fonte Plose also does without a PVC insert in the screw-cap.
In 1998, Fonte Plose started modernising their plant. A new Lavatec KES bottle washer, a Rotomat decapper and two Glideliners were followed by a Linatronic empty bottle inspector with another two Glideliners. The subsequent year saw the refurbishment of the complete dry end, comprising two Blitzpac packers and unpackers, plus two R50 column robots for palletising and depalletising and a Checkmat crate inspector.
In 2003, Fonte Plose completed the modernisation project, installing a filler-capper-labeller BLOC, supplemented by a Checkmat for fill level monitoring, a laser coding/dating device and a compact carbonator.
A swivelling screw-capper is connected to the Mecafill VKP filler with electro-pneumatic control system. The Starmatic labeller is equipped with two cold-glue stations for front and back labels. The line, rated at 30,000 bph, is operated by four staff. For the old 14,000-bph line, twice as many employees were needed.
Three-quarters of the output are filled in the transparent 1-litre glass bottle. Fonte Plose also has a 0.5-l bottle, a 0.75-l catering-trade bottle, a 0.25-l catering-trade bottle and a green 1-l non-returnable bottle in its range.