PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2010

BOTTLING / FILLING 40 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 05/10 www.petpla.net Lasers to help quench consumers’ thirst At Gerolsteiner Brunnen, Germany, a new filling line running at 28,000 bph uses a Bluhm Systems* Solarjet Heavy Duty (HD) 30 watt laser to ensure that every single one of their bottles of mineral water is marked with the correct expiry date and product traceability data. ing cable can be up to 15 metres long. Noteworthy features include a special lens technology that allows marking with a 30 watt laser where normally a much more powerful class of laser would be needed. The Solarjet HD is water-cooled and so is suitable for the highest levels of performance. It has IP65 protection and so is proof against external factors such as water and dust. This means that the robust equipment is suitable for use in the beverage industry as well as applications such as found in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors, or anywhere where a great deal of water and/or steam is used for clean- ing down the production environment. Technical performance When coding products using a laser the surface of the product is ther- mally altered; a small fraction of the outer surface is burned away. Hence the required heat energy has to work on the product for a speci- fied amount of time. The shorter the time available for this burning process to be carried out the higher the laser output must be. If the product surface is highly reflective, as for instance PET film, then the combination of time and power has to be precisely adjusted. To simplify the work of the laser Gerol- steiner Brunnen have arranged for a coating of particularly black ink on the area of the PE label to be marked. This allows for faster coding and produces a result with greater contrast. Cost and efficviency factors Thanks to its extremely compact construction the Solarjet Laser can be conveniently installed in any production environment. The laser tube has an expected lifetime of 30,000 operating hours, and this refers only to the time during which the laser beam is active. The device needs no consuma- bles or servicing other than electricity and an occasional wipe with a duster, which helps reduce running costs. This could be an important factor for lines running 24/7. “A large percentage of our output is exported around the world. Last year alone we exported 265 hectoli- tres. Every country has its own spe- cific requirements regarding product marking and so we need a system with maximum flexibility, that codes products very quickly and is easy to operate,” explains Roland Schlösser, coordinator of technical planning at the mineral water plant in Gerolstein. “To make traceability of our products easier and more precise we wanted to mark the bottles not only with the expiry date but also with details of the batch number and the machine used to fill them, plus the exact date and time”. 30 Watts have got what it takes With this requirement in mind Gerolsteiner Brunnen, a leader in the bottled mineral water sector, approached Bluhm Systems. Bluhm, a manufacturer of various marking and coding systems, located at Unkel am Rhein in Germany, recommended the Solarjet laser. The device consists of a compact laser unit and a separate, very small control unit. The connect- Up to 50 barcode labels per minute are applied to the side of the six-pack with no physical contact. The coding can be clearly read on the black background.