PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2013

EDITOUR REPORTS 23 the delicate closure and ensure that it will work without any problems. When we ask about problems during the conversion, Bugrov gives a guarded response “the plants are now working“ – no ifs or buts. Nevertheless, now and again he scales back the plants to the PCO 1810. When he packages the big 2.5l pack he always goes back to the old format. “We buy preforms and closures from Retal but they are still unable to supply us with the big preforms“ says Bugrov. Until they get to that point he always goes for a conversion job. Depending on the other format changes, this can take three to eight hours for the entire plant. At the shrink tunnel Maxim Bugrov demonstrates the use of the Retal films In fact, for the Slavutich Brewery, closures are a key topic. As a promotion they are putting real coins onto a certain proportion of the closures. This is going very well, although when the stage is reached to affix the coins, there are more security staff around than machine operators. The plant configuration is made up of three parts, the blow moulding section is in one room, the same applies to the wet section and the dry section. The bottles end up in the filler block via the rinser but they are not actually rinsed. Up to now this has posed no problems. 108 valves fill the flash pasteurised beer into the PET bottles. The capper gets on with its capping, it is only the labeller that consistently seems to generate problems. Now that the Krones labeller is in position, many of the problems have been overcome. Almost all brands feature a round plastic label around the body; only “Baltika“ is the exception. Here the marketing strategists have devised a 3-section decora- tion made from paper. A front label, a label at the rear and – of course – a label on the shoulder. And the new Krones labeller has its own labelling station specially for this. In the drying stretch the bottles are assembled on trays to form multipacks. The shrink film comes from Retal, as do the preforms and caps. www.slavutich.ua