PETpla.net Insider 07 / 2017

BOTTLE MAKING 20 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 07/17 www.petpla.net Co-packer opts for dry aseptics Juices, soft drinks, cider, beer, wine and spirits – so basically everything except milk and clear water: that’s the highly diversified range of products made by Konings for other beverage companies. The Belgian contract-filling firm has about a dozen key accounts, for whom it is something like a one-stop shop: Konings handles either the entire beverage production and filling operations, or it just fills the drinks as a co-packer. In a preliminary stage, the com- pany processes apples and pears at its main facility in Zonhoven, and ferments these to make ciders. After these have been produced, they are stored in a warehouse with space for 20,000 pallets. Ten years ago, the founder’s family sold Konings. The four new owners then changed over the company’s structure with purpose- ful rigour step by step. Their intention was for Konings:  to do entirely without house brands in the future, so as to be able to offer its contract-filling services more independently;  to be expanded into a producer and filling company for any kind of beverage;  to turn its back on short-term con- tracts and establish long-term alli- ances instead;  to upgrade its product portfolio by deploying new technologies. From wet to dry-aseptics In four facilities at Konings, filling lines are up and running for return- able and non-returnable glass bottles, cans, cartons and PET containers. It is the sensitive juices, in particular, that demand gentle production and filling processes: in the English plant, wet-aseptics had already been used, and in the Dutch town of Breda two of these PET lines had likewise been running. But firstly no blow-moulder had been integrated into them there, and secondly the sterilisation rate was a mere log 4. This means that it was only possible to fill beverages in the cold chain. To be able to guar- antee absolutely safe filling for all its customers’ sensitive beverages in future without adding any preserva- tives, the company decided to start using a dry-aseptic process from then on. Luc Nulens explains: “The advan- tages offered by dry sterilisation are obvious. Thanks to the high sterili- sation rate of log 6, it’s possible to market the beverages outside the cold chain even when no preservatives are added. With the CIP/SIP cleaning procedure, format change-over times are significantly shorter and finally the consumption of energy, and process- ing and operating materials, meaning electricity, water, air and peroxides is reduced.” Lightweight PET container newly developed In this context, it was important that Krones, just like Konings, acts as a turnkey vendor and is able to supply the process technology involved as well, i.e. CIP and the product UHT system. Konings installed a stretch blow-moulder for the first time here. The new line has been up and running since January 2017, and includes a PET-Asept D aseptic block. It han- dles fruit juice, flavoured water, a whey-based soft drink, and a vita- min-enriched water. The latter had hitherto been hot-filled in Ireland in a 0.5l bottle weighing 27g. Together with Krones, Konings has developed a similar-looking container weighing a mere 22g. Thanks to aseptic filling, too, the best-before period has mean- while be extended from six to nine months. Dry, sterile, efficacious The PET-Asept D process is made for safe filling of sensitive beverages without adding any preservatives. The sterilising agent used is gaseous hydrogen peroxide, which flows into the still-warm PET containers directly bottle making A high sterilisation rate, short format changeover times and low consump- tion of energy and processing/operating materials are reasons enough for Luc Nulens to opt for dry sterilisation.