PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2014

EDITOUR REPORT 16 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 04/14 www.petpla.net PET bottles When we get to the PET bottling section we are struck by the wide diversity of Brazilian bottle sizes. In addition to the traditional bottle sizes such as 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0l, we find here a host of intermediate sizes such as, for example, 0.25, 0.5, 0.6, 1.75, 2.25, 2.75, and 3.0ls. The latter is popular during the Christmas season, for example. In addition there are straight wall, contour and refillable applications. Typical PET bottle weights are:  3.0l (straight wall) 56.4g  2.0l (contour) 42.6g  2.0l (refill) 98.0g  0.6/0.25l (same preform) 20.6g PET equipment The first installations go back to 1991 with an initial KHS bottling machine that is still in operation. Over the course of the years further installations from KHS, Krones and Sidel followed, together with bottling lines and stretch blow mould- ing machines from Sidel and Krones. Overall there are six PET lines here, the most recent having been installed in 2011/13, from Krones and Sidel, in block construction (stretch blow moulding machine and bottler on-line) in accordance with the latest state of the art technology. The bottling capacities are up to 39,200 2l Coca Cola contour PET bph. These are marshalled ready for despatch in trays of six bottles. Preforms are predominantly purchased from Alpla and Amcor in Brazil and not stretch blow moulded by the company itself. In the case of refillable PET, the situation is somewhat different; for this the 600ml and 2l PET bot- tles are bought in. The growing requirement has made it necessary to replace one glass line with a new PET refill- able line.As regards the quantity bottled at the plant, the 2l PET bottle dominates. Worthy of mention is the 600ml PET bottle where all the possible material options are deployed here such as virgin material, recycled PET, plant bottle material from 30% bio-ethanol and copolymer for refill. Beverage processing The concentrate comes from the Coca Cola Latin America concentrate centre at Manaus. The water and the unrefined sugar are processed here in this plant and blended fully automatically on the bottling lines and mixed with carbonic acid. Energy Here too, saving energy in the factory is a prime concern. In the last five years a range of projects have been launched. For example, a new generator is just being installed that can get by with only a few emulsions and which works more efficiently than the present day system. A further project lies in the provision of compressed air for the stretch blow moulding machines. In the manufac- ture of PET bottles, the greatest demand for energy comes from the compressed air compressors. For the stretch blow SDWHQWV UHVHDUFKHUV DQG WHFKQLFLDQV LQVWDOOHG SODQWV EUDQFKHV ZRUOGZLGH ,I ZH KDGQêW JRQH VR IDU ZH ZRXOGQêW EH VR QHDU <RXU IXWXUH VHHQ IURP QHDU