PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2016

BOTTLING / FILLING 28 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 05/16 www.petpla.net Upgrade improves heater box efficiency A hot crate Overheads for materials and the price of energy are among the biggest cost drivers in production. Mineral water bottlers Teinach GmbH have thus charged the KHS Group with the modernisation of their PET bottle filling line. In the course of the process the systems supplier improved the level of energy efficiency by optimising the heater boxes on the PET stretch blow moulder in particular. engineers from the mineral water company. The stretch blow moulder in Teinach has been in operation since 2007. “Over the last nine years the machine has given us wonderful ser- vice. KHS then showed us that with little effort we could improve further on our levels of energy efficiency,” Schanz explains. After a maximum of two days the machine would again be ready for operation, yielding savings of up to 50%. Heater box geometry with ceramic reflectors The upgrade primarily consisted of converting the heater box on the Blomax Series III Compact where the PET preforms are heated for the downstream stretch blow mould- ing process. Frank Goebel, head of Service Engineering at KHS, summa- rised the development of the past few years: “We have almost 600 Series II Blomaxes in operation worldwide. We aim to continue to support the operators of these durable machines even after many years of service.” At Teinach this means saving over 40% in energy by converting the heater box which KHS achieved by adding new reflectors made of modern ceramics to the heater boxes and precisely adjust- ing the geometry. Thanks to their special design the physical properties of the ceramic elements have a very positive impact on the energy distri- bution, resulting in less energy being needed to heat the preforms. The reflectors and infrared emitter are built that the sensitive bottle thread area is not unnecessarily heated. The amount of cooling in this area can then be reduced, thus saving Teinach even more energy. This higher efficiency makes it possible to shorten the heat- ing segment, explains Goebel. If fewer heating elements are required in the heater, the infrared emitter consump- tion also drops as a result. KHS usually converts the heater boxes on all Series III Blomaxes in about two days. The process engi- neers make the fine and final adjust- ments during the startup phase so that disruption to production is kept short. Teinach’s head of Engineering is suitably satisfied with his company’s decision to invest in this new feature. “We’re always trying to save energy to cut costs and protect the environ- ment,” states Schanz. The bottler The Teinach product range, filled in PET bottles. Non-alcoholic beverages in the Teinacher and Hirschquelle brand portfolio are the chief products for the company from the north of the Black Forest, Germany, which belongs to Mineralbrunnen Überkingen-Teinach KGaA. At its plant in Bad Teinach, the mineral water bottler achieves an output of about 150 million bottles of water and soda pop per year, a third of which are made of PET. Preform heating consumes a lot of energy and is a relevant factor when it comes to the operating costs incurred during the manufacture of PET bottles. One of Michael Schanz’s main tasks as Head of Engineering at Mineralbrun- nen Teinach GmbH is to constantly monitor the energy efficiency of the lines. KHS analysed the savings potential of the reliable InnoPET Blomax Series III together with the