New returnable-glass line for northern Germany: Coca-Cola invests in Lüneburg

“Just as the filler was loaded on the boat and ready to go, the waters began to rise,” recalls Friedrich Hein, Project Manager for Production and Digital Transformation at CCEP DE, about that day the previous year. One of the biggest fillers Krones had ever built – weighing 23.5 tons – was about to set sail from Regensburg to Lüneburg. Multiple construction projects on Germany’s Autobahn highways meant that heavy-freight transport by road was out of the question – so the decision was made to ship the filler by water. 

The arrival date was set for a Saturday so as not to interfere with the plant’s production operations. But getting the timing right turned out to be an exercise in patience, because high waters threatened to prevent the ship’s passage. For days, it was unclear whether it would be able to dock on schedule. “It was a real nail-biter,” says Friedrich Hein. In the end, it all worked out and the ship reached Lüneburg’s snowy harbor as planned. 

The Lüneburg facility is one of 13 production sites operated by CCEP DE – and with its new glass line, it’s an important catalyst for beverage filling in the north. The Modulfill HES filler is the heart of the line, which is the second of its kind here. The plant supplies Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and parts of Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with a focus on short transport distances, low emissions and a consistently regional orientation. 

Sustainability plays a central role, not only when it comes to logistics. CCEP DE also makes it a priority for its packaging, employing a diverse range of packaging solutions that are tailored to the situation at hand. “You can’t say that glass or PET is more sustainable in and of itself. It always depends on the context,” explains Plant Manager Francis Driessen. “Our goal is to offer the right solution to meet every need.” That being said, glass is definitely trending. In northern Germany, more and more consumers are choosing returnable bottles made of glass when they buy Coca-Cola, Fanta or Mezzo Mix.  

Our goal is to offer the right solution to meet every need. Francis DriessenPlant Manager at Lüneburg

Same space, triple the output 

The Lüneburg plant offered the right conditions for the new filling line: Existing kit with a comparatively low output of 20,000 containers per hour was to be dismantled and the resulting free space brought up to the latest state of the art, with an efficient layout. The aim was to install a new line with three times the capacity – on the same footprint. 

“So one of our core needs was a space-saving layout,” says Francis Driessen. But the line also had to deliver high performance, top quality and user-friendliness. The demands on planning and implementation were stringent – from a technical and a logistical perspective. 

Krones won the contract, thanks in large part to its expertise in providing solutions that deliver performance, reliability, safety and service. Time also played a key role. The line needed to arrive quickly and be ready to produce the entire product range to cover the important summer season. 

Installation went off without a hitch – during ongoing production no less 

There was one major challenge: the line had to be installed without stopping production. The other lines had to be able to carry on as usual without restriction. So precise planning and tight coordination were essential. 

And although things didn’t always go exactly to plan – as with the weather conditions at the time the filler was shipped – delivery and installation of the heavy machine components was accomplished to a high level of logistical precision. Installation of the bottle washer in particular had to be very exacting, right down to the millimeter. The individual assemblies were moved into position by way of roller skids and fork-lift trucks and then, with the help of laser technology, positioned exactly as specified in the plan. 

A number of trades and external service providers were involved in the installation. Daily check-ins on the construction site and a strict safety policy were part of the process. And because the project also required extensive modifications to the building shell, major safety sessions were held at least twice each week, as Friedrich Hein tells us. 

At peak times, the line fills 60,000 bottles per hour with carbonated soft drinks, in two sizes – 0.2 and 0.33 liters – and in two different bottle shapes: the iconic contoured bottle and a universal returnable bottle. These are then packed into crates. 

This new returnable-glass line makes Coca-Cola’s Lüneburg plant not only the plant with the highest output in Germany but also the most technologically advanced. The entire line was designed with automation, efficiency and quality in mind. Automatic processes shorten changeover times on the individual machines – for example, the palletizer, the packer or the bottle washer – down to a minimum. Likewise, quick-change handling parts on the filler make for faster transitions while also increasing line uptime.

Quality assurance now features artificial intelligence  

“The Linatronic AI empty-bottle inspector is a technology highlight of the new line,” stresses Francis Driessen. This visual inspection system checks each and every bottle for material damage, soiling or residues – with the help of artificial intelligence. 

The heart of the system is an artificial neural network (ANN) that is trained using tens of thousands of images. The Linatronic AI reliably detects cracks, chipping, bits of foam or residual caustic. The goal is to allow only flawless bottles to continue through the production process, thus increasing product quality and reducing both rejects and resource consumption. 

The Linatronic AI system in Lüneburg is currently still in what is called “processing mode”. In this phase, individual images are collected, analyzed and annotated for both bottle types – contour and multipurpose. Each photo is tagged to a specific type of defect. The system is trained using “supervised learning”, where it is given labelled datasets (in this case images) that contain a matching evaluation for each input. Although conventional inspection systems are already reliably meeting Coca-Cola’s exacting quality standards, the company has opted to take it a step further by bringing in Linatronic AI. The intelligent technology identifies returnable bottles that are still in good shape with even more precision, even when a conventional system might erroneously reject them. The result are fewer false rejects, more usable bottles per filling cycle – and therefore a noticeable increase in efficiency and sustainability within the returnables system. It’s a smart advancement that pays off in terms of both technology and ecology. 

Conserving resources in the washing process  

In bottle washing, too, Coca-Cola in Lüneburg has opted for state-of-the-art technologies. The bottle washer is equipped with the Parcival filtration system for the wash caustic, which can continuously filter up to three cubic meters of caustic per hour and thus ensure consistently high cleaning performance. In all, the bottles pass through three caustic baths, each with a capacity of 45 cubic meters. One significant advantage of the system is that the filtered caustic is then directly fed back into the production line. So there is no need for separate pumping cycles or waiting periods. That increases energy efficiency and helps to conserve resources. 

A single operating system for all lines 

The new returnable-glass line in Lüneburg is not only mechanically powerful. It’s also digitally connected. For example, both glass lines use the Line Diagnostics analytics solution, which provides detailed evaluations of the quality, performance and cost-relevant data of individual machines and for the line as a whole.  

For the personnel, operating the machines is highly intuitive. “Because all four lines are from Krones, our staff are able to use the familiar human-machine interface (HMI), which reduces the time needed for training and simplifies shift operations,” says Francis Driessen. Each line has four to five operators plus a line manager per shift. Comprehensive training – both on site in Lüneburg and at Krones’ premises in Neutraubling – helped them all learn the ropes of the new machines, with a particular focus on the filler and the mixer. In addition, new employees were hired and likewise intensively trained on the line. 

Strong line, strong team 

With the new returnable-glass line, Coca-Cola in Lüneburg has taken another step towards efficient, sustainable and advanced beverage filling. The combination of proven machine components and innovative technologies like the AI-based empty-bottle inspector shows how industrial processes can be continuously developed – without losing sight of operational reliability. “The line is a successful marriage of established systems and targeted technological advancements,” is how Francis Driessen sums it up.

The line is a successful marriage of established systems and targeted technological advancements. Francis DriessenPlant Manager at Lüneburg

Friedrich Hein adds: “We have shown that a compact, powerful line can also be implemented quickly while production is ongoing.” One important factor for this success was the teams’ close cooperation. “The service engineers from Krones were here at our plant for several months and quickly became part of our team. Communication was great – and they were right there to help whenever we needed it,” says a gratified Francis Driessen. 

With the new line, the Lüneburg plant has grown further – in terms of technology, staff and logistics. The investment is a clear commitment to production in Germany and to maintaining a regional supply base for Northern Germany. 

We have shown that a compact, powerful line can also be implemented quickly while production is ongoing. Friedrich HeinManager for Production and Digital Transformation at CCEP DE