PETpla.net Insider 08 / 2014

ON SITE 31 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 08/14 www.petpla.net ON site Satisfying the booming African demand for cola Coca-Cola Sabco needed a new PET production line to capitalise on a growing domestic market for cola carbon- ates. Total annual sales in the country recently reached 1,800 million litres and the popularity of the drinks currently shows no sign of slowing down. The line Coca-Cola Sabco installed was needed to enable the company to increase both product supply and quality in order to increase its market share. It was also looking to reduce the environ- mental impact of its production. The company decided to invest in the Sidel Matrix solution for its Polokwane plant. Established in 1940 in Port Elizabeth in South Africa, the South African Bottling Company has since gone on to become a major player in the carbonated soft drinks (CSD) bottling industry. With 21 production sites throughout a total of nine countries, the company currently supplies some 240 million consumers. The company has five manufactur- ing sites located throughout South Africa in Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Polokwane, Nelspruit and Port Shepstone. The Sidel Matrix system, which includes blowers, fillers, Combi and labellers, can be installed in any complete-line configuration required. It is said to offer fast changeover times, oven efficiency and improved uptime with reduced environmental impact. Designed to minimise the resources used, it is intended to use less energy, water and chemicals compared to other systems while offering the possibility to produce ultra-lightweighted bottles. Coca-Cola Sabco’s investment in the complete production line for the plant in Polokwane featured a Sidel Matrix Combi, equipped with 20 blowing stations and 165 filling valves, as well as a Starblend mixer, a Sidel Rollquattro roll-fed labeller and a palletiser. The new Polokwane line is used to produce several of the company’s larger formats, including its 2l version, and is capable of achieving production rates of 32,500bph. www.sidel.com Amut chosen for Carbon Lite plastics recycling facility Carbon Lite Recycling LLC has chosen Amut equip- ment as part of a new 20,000m² recycling plant that will process post-consumer bottles into PET (PCR-PET) pel- lets which are used to make new bottles. Carbon Lite is specialized in bottle-to-bottle recycling, producing PCR- PET bottles and serving major beverage brands. The output will be about 45,000t per year of finished products. With this investment Carbon Lite doubles its capacity at its new plastic recycling facility in Abilene, Texas which will also supply Nestlé’s bottling facilities near Dallas. Total investment in equipment and infrastructure exceeds USD 60 million. Another plant of Carbon Lite is operating in Riv- erside, California. The Amut equipment will be used in several process- ing steps for the cleaning of the PET bottles. The scope of supply includes a delabeller (DLB-60 model – patent- pending) full-body shrink sleeve label-removal system and the patented PW-180/5 high friction washing system which will be incorporated for the cleaning of the whole bottles prior to the wet grinding process. For the final cleaning of the PET flakes the patented hot flake friction washing system AX 150/5 will be used. The delabeller (launched in 2013) is able to remove full-body shrink sleeve labels, other labels and general dirt using a complete dry pre- washing system (water free). For the food-grade purification and pelletizing, Carbon Lite will use technology from Erema North America Inc. The new plant’s front-end, bale-opening and bottle-sorting will be built by Bulk Handling Systems of Eugene, or using sorting modules from its subsidiary NRT of Nashville, TN. www.amut.it