Britvic improves bottle drying and saves on energy with new drying solution from ACI

The Problem

Britvic plc is one of Europe’s leading soft drinks companies, with a portfolio of market leading brands, such as Robinsons, J2O, Fruit Shoot, Tango and Drench.  Previously, at their Britvic (Leeds) facility, two drying units had been installed on their main bottling line. These were not fulfilling their requirement of best practice manufacturing – the units weren’t effective, and did not incorporate bottle guide rails so there was a recurrent problem of bottles falling over causing line stoppages, lost production and product waste.

Line Requirements:

Throughput Speeds: 36,000 bph
PET Bottle sizes: 125ml – 750ml

The Solution

The two units have been replaced by a single ACI ‘LNL’ unit, featuring ACI’s ‘JetPlate‘ air delivery system. Air is delivered close to the bottles for maximum efficiency, whilst at the same time acting as guide rails to promote bottle stability.

The Outcome

“The previous system was a nightmare. Production hold-ups, ineffective drying, complicated set-up and fiddly to clean design, all combined to undermine efficiency. In contrast, the ACI bottle drying solution enables us to maximise throughput with no issues relating to the bottle drying function and it’s also easy to switch product runs.” Mick Wigham, Engineering Team Leader, Britvic.

Solutions For Packaging & Labelling

Our range of bottle and can drying systems helps to ensure that today’s ground breaking labelling and packaging technology is not compromised by any surface water used in the packaging process.