PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2014

ON site 42 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 01+02/14 www.petpla.net Sidel hat-trick Plastics packaging solutions provider Alpla, which special- ises in blow-moulded bottles, has optimised its PET-blowing capacities in Mexico with the installation of two Sidel Matrix blowers over two years. The investment allowed the company to produce bottles for the full range of Coca-Cola branded products, at the Toluca plant of client company Coca-Cola Femsa, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the world. Alpla field-tested a new SBO 24 Sidel Matrix blow-moulder in Febru- ary 2012 and then ordered a second machine, which started production started a year later later. Alpla selected Sidel after an investigative process that focused on investment costs, energy consumption, maintenance and after-sales service, as well as Sidel Matrix’ offer to reduce bottle scrap rate. Coca-Cola Femsa is the leading bottler in Latin America, where annual consump- tion of cola is averages 225l/person.The Mexican market is one of the largest ‘per capita’ consumers of soft drinks in the world but increasing health-consciousness and concerns about obe- sity are leading to a growing focus on water and non-carbon- ated drinks. As physical activity across the country also grows, demand for energy drinks is expected to rise. Sales of the “on- the-go” format are also expected to increase. On the other side of the world from Mexico, in the Sultanate of Oman, Sidel partnered with Barzman National (LLC), for a complete PET water bottling line. Barzman, one of the leading domestic producers in the Omani market, approached Sidel in 2012 in its search for a fast, high capacity production line with durability and sustainable efficiency. An order for a Sidel Combi water bottling line was placed after meeting with the company’s Zonal Vice President long and detailed discussions. The deal was worked on from the company’s new regional headquarters in Dubai, which were officially opened in Septem- ber 2013. The line, to be installed at the customer’s production facility in Muscat in January 2014, will initially produce water in 0.25, 0.5 and 1l formats at speeds of up to 22,000bph. Trends in the country are presently showing an apparent shift from soft drinks to water and juices. With employment levels in the Sultanate high and rising personal income, demand for bottled water is fast increasing. The local market is also seeing trends towards the lightweighting of packaging. Barzman National (LLC) is a market leader in bottled water in Oman, supplying “pure natural water” to wholesalers, hypermarkets, mini-mar- kets, the corporate sector, government institutions, the banking sector, schools, hospitals and other private and self-labelling distributors. A long flight and a continent away, Harris International of Uganda, am African producer of mineral water, still and car- bonated soft drinks (CSDs) for the domestic market, recently took delivery of the first Sidel Combi PET bottling line ever to be installed in East Africa. A decisive factor in Harris choos- ing Sidel was the flexibility of its solution, including the line equipment, services and also the company’s overall busi- ness approach. As well as the machine’s features and the company’s established expertise, the recent launch of a Sidel Services centre in nearby Kenya also helped. The flexibility afforded by the Combi line was a consideration in the selec- tion process since Harris will be using it to bottle CSD’s, juices and water under the Riham brand, which is well established in Uganda. Before the new line was installed at its production facility in Kampala, Harris had been bottling only still water on its existing Sidel PET line. It wanted to meet the increas- ing local demand, support local agricultural producers and, by installing the latest, fully automated aseptic processing technology, it sought to gain a lead in Uganda’s developing food and beverage industry with higher quality products. The decision was made to invest in a new PET bottling line but Harris insisted that it should be able to cope with the bottling of different beverages and products, including juices and CSDs, while anticipating future capacity requirements. After extensive and thorough discussions Sidel was selected to provide the line, with a capacity of 16,000bph rather than 8,000bph. www.sidel.com Appe goes for Powersort Appe’s PET recycling plant in Beaune, France, covers the entire process chain from bottle sorting to pre-forming. Its joint venture with Coca- Cola Enterprises demands recy- cling to the highest standards currently available. Unisen- sor’s Powersort 200 system, which is based on laser spectroscopy, has already been in use at Appe’s plant. It has been employed in an existing PET recycling line since 2010. A new production line, which will be dedicated to the Coca-Cola joint venture, will be equipped with a Power- sort 200 from outset. The system identifies the material in a plastic flake stream based on its specific opto-electronic spectrum, or “fingerprint”, and separates the good mate- rial from the various foreign materials such as PVC, nylon, silicone, multilayers or blends, in a single step. Up to a million individual spectra are recorded and analysed each second. The system’s high resolution enables it to recog- nise even extremely small foreign particles, which are then ejected with very precise air nozzles. The new production line will increase the “SuperCycle” capacity of the Beaune recycling plant by 70%, to 48,000t/a. www.unisensor.de www.appe.com