Filling technology for Swedish vodka

The Swedish vodka producer Absolut has for the first time installed a complete Krones wet end following the good performance of two Starmatic-Taxomat labellers over the past three years.
The heart of the bottling line is a rinser/filler BLOC featuring a VV vacuum filler and a special spirits rinser. This single-channel Variojet is fitted with a rinsing jet monitor, an automatic “no bottle – no rinsing” feature, and a drip extractor system, that removes and returns the very last droplet of the rinsing medium alcohol with a vacuum pump.
The Isofill VV low-vacuum filler has been designed for the liquor and spirits industry. After filling, the low-vacuum conditions in the ring bowl hold the product in the return gas path or push it back into the ring bowl – the valve does not leak before the next bottle is pressed on. On their line, rated at 15,000 bph, Absolut fill 0.7-l to 1.75-l glass bottles – the ones with the medallion moulded onto the glass at the neck.
With its total of three APS2 applicators for pressure-sensitive labels, one of the Topmodul labeller’s jobs is to position the medallion label with down-to-the-last-millimetre accuracy. The other two applicators dress the bottles in back labels, and body labels, too, if required. In addition, a Taxomat module applies the tax strip and a Garantomat fits the sleeve over the closure. Since the specified bottle dress differs from country to country, there are hundreds of different dress variants. That’s why a Checkmat with camera technology is also indispensable for monitoring the label position.