Test Facility Upgraded

The recently refurbished test facility provides the company with a means of demonstrating to customers the efficiency of both its bottle and can drying units.
The 10m x 2m conveyor-based demonstration facility runs at speeds of up to 60,000 cans/hr and will accept all standard can sizes used in the soft and alcoholic drinks markets.

As well as offering visual evidence of drying, ACI also provides test facilities to verify drying standards achieved. For example, a code of Practice Code drawn-up jointly by the MPMA (Metal Packaging Manufacturers’ Association) and BLRA (Brewers’ and Licensed Retailers Association) relating to can drying is followed.

ACI’s CanDrying Tunnel system are employed currently on Stella Artois, Coca-Cola and Red Bull lines around the world – plus many others.

Based upon a tunnel configuration, the ACI can drying system features specially configured slots that direct air to remove water efficiently whilst driving it downwards and out of the enclosed area. Also, the enclosed environment ensures the water is contained and the drying air performs more effectively than with conventional ‘open’ alternatives. Noise attenuation is another benefit of the enclosed design.

Brewer demands dairy hygiene standards

A speciality of Bitburger Braugruppe is the brewing of non-pasteurised Pils beer and this calls for the highest hygiene standards.

One precaution the company takes to achieve these standards is to minimise the presence of crevices and projections on machinery that could serve as catchment zones and create possible contamination risks.

ACI has supplied a bottle drying system built specially to comply with these high standards.

The bottle dryer is low-noise, high through-put unit that has been adapted to meet these demanding hygiene requirements. All meeting surfaces have seamless welded joins in order to facilitate cleaning and eliminate bacteria build up.

In addition, the housing for the blower (ACI’s EP10) is mounted on top of the dryer. This is to permit easy cleaning under the dryer.

According to Dr Johannes Hankes, Department manager, the ACI bottle dryer is installed on a line that replaces two previous ones and handles a throughput of 50,000 bottles/hr. He also said that the dryer provided a cost-effective solution compared to other options.

Currently, the bottles passing through the dryer are standard 330ml ones, but it is expected other sizes will be used.

Airknives blow away labelling problems for microbrewery to boost output

Faced with increasing demand – from home and overseas - the award winning microbrewery, O’Hanlon’s Brewery of Devon needed to increase output. Production of the company’s beers, ales and stouts was not a problem but getting the product out of the door was.

The inhibiting factor was O’Hanlon’s bottling/labelling operation. For O’Hanlon’s condensation caused delays in the labelling because frequently filled bottles had to be left to dry before labels could be applied. This limited production to around 2700 bottles/day.

Another issue arising from condensation and exacerbating time delays was double handling. Bottles once filled were sometimes removed from the filling/labelling line and then reintroduced when dry to proceed through the labelling machine.

However, the problems caused by condensation are no longer an issue for O’Hanlon’s Brewery. They have been eliminated following the installation of a pair of ‘AirKnives’ supplied by Air Control Industries of Chard.

“ACI’s AirKnives do exactly what it says on the tin – they dry the bottles”! commented Liz O’Hanlon, Director. “They are easy to install, easy to operate and simple to maintain, which is important for a small brewery like ours with supermarkets and international outlets as customers.”

Money saved plus more efficient can/bottle drying for Türk Tuborg

Financial savings combined with ensured consistent and accurate labelling were the chief drivers for the Türk Tuborg* filling operation in Izmir, Turkey installing new can and bottle drying systems. The drying systems were installed as retrofit units to replace compressed air jets and heated tunnels, and are reported to be achieving significant savings whilst also helping to avoid the problem of label slippage resulting from inefficiently dried bottles.

The can and bottle drying machines are from Air Control Industries (ACI) and were supplied by the company’s Turkish distributor, Yük. Müh. Nihat Kagnici, Sanayi Müsavirligi ve Mümessilligi. The principal reason for the substantial cost savings is the fact the ACI units are all blower powered, a more cost-effective and cleaner way of delivering air for drying bottles and cans.

“The ACI drying systems are working very well and the support has been excellent, both from ACI and Nihat Kagnici,” said Arda Sengöz, Packaging Engineer. “What’s more, we are saving money. The compressed air systems and heating tunnel were much more expensive to run and maintain so we expect a rapid payback on our investment.”

Success for CCE's new bottle and 'ROSO' labelling ensured

In the fast moving FMCG market product awareness is king. A differentiating factor enhances that customer awareness helping to reinforce the product’s visibility. Frequently, this involves a make-over of the product’s packaging and presentation.

One such example is the new 1 litre and 1.25 litre contoured bottles of Schweppes’ tonic water, Russian, Ginger Ale and other sparkling mixers bottled at Coca-Cola Enterprises’ (CCE) Wakefield bottling plant, where ACI’s drying system are playing an essential role in helping the company meet its labelling objectives.

CCE and Krones UK, supplier of the bottling line discounted other labels in favour of ROSO (Roll-on Shrink-on) plastic shrinkable labelling system. These labels demand absolutely dry bottles and ACI’s ‘JetPlate’ system achieved that, ensuring complete labelling perfection.

“The ACI DRI-Line has matched up to all our demands,” said David Hunt, Product Specialist, Krones UK. “It dries the bottles effectively, can handle both the new and old bottle designs with no adjustment and it is extremely reliable thanks to its simple yet effective design.”

Success at Drinktec 2009

Drinktec 20099 again proved to be a very worthwhile venture, enabling us once more to exhibit our latest designs for bottle and can drying systems. The exhibition attracted over 60,000 visitors, including all the big brand names from both the alcoholic and soft drinks markets. The exhibition resulted in some very significant enquiries and since the show in September, some significant orders have been placed.

Blowers help set scene for 'Walking with Dinosaurs'

The ‘Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular’ show is proving to be an international success. For its UK run, during 2009, more than 500,000 tickets were sold, and it is now enjoying a successful tour across Europe and North America.

Based upon the popular BBC series, this live theatrical event employs life-size, animatronic dinosaurs to re-enact life as it was when the creatures inhabited the world.

The arena sets are designed to create appropriate settings to represent different periods of the world’s history as the Pangaea (super continent that began splitting up 200 million years ago) broke up to form the various continents of the world.

An integral part of the mobile scenery, produced by Yorkshire-based specialist set builders Stage One for The Creature Production Company who created the animatronic dinosaurs, is the vegetation.

The realistic vegetation which sprouts during the show is inflatable. The fact it is inflatable permits it to ‘grow’ during performances whilst also proving easier for set erection, stowage and transportation.

An important element of the vegetation effect is the blowers employed to inflate it. The vegetation is deployed across the set and ‘grows’ through holes cut out of the scenery. Inside the various set elements are blowers that initially inflate the plants and then keep them up to pressure during the performance.

“The ACI blowers are doing exactly what we want when we want”, said Roy Webber, Project Manager, of Stage One. “ACI has been very helpful, even lending us a blower to prove it was what we needed – and it is!”

The blowers were supplied by specialist fan and blower manufacturer, Air Control Industries (ACI) of Chard. The blowers are ACI’s MS11 blowers with backward bladed impellers for delivering high air volumes efficiently. The blade’s efficiency is enhanced by being directly mounted on the motor shaft eliminating transmission losses. This configuration also results in very low noise output. It is available with up to in either single or three phase AC or DC with up to 4 impellers mounted on the same motor shaft to deliver up to 750m³/hr (430 cfm) to pressures of 59mBar (23.8in WG).