PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2017

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 10/17 www.petpla.net 28 Plasmax coating of PET bottles protects sensitive beverages A fine distinction Filling and packaging specialist KHS and Eckes-Granini, a leading European bottler of fruit bev- erages, have been a team for many years in the field of sustainable protection of high-quality juices and juice beverages. A Plasmax coating machine at Eckes-Granini’s Bad Fallingbostel, Germany, plant has now been integrated with a stretch blow moulder for the first time. KHS says that its patented Plas- max coating process provides out- standing quality protection for sensi- tive beverages, such as fruit juice. During the process an ultra-thin, invisible layer of glass is applied to the inside of PET bottles; this forms a barrier that prevents flavours and/ or carbon dioxide from escaping and stops oxygen from penetrating the bottle, thus preventing loss of vita- mins. FreshSafe PET bottles coated using the Plasmax method retain taste and freshness, same as glass bottles. The coating extends product shelf life as well. In multilayer bot- tles or blend solution barrier systems currently on the market, nylon or substances which react with oxygen are injected into a central layer or mixed into the plastic, for example. Plasmax-coated PET bottles offer a definitive and increasingly important advantage over traditional solutions: bottles can be fully recycled, to make new PET. Wafer-thin coating “Our wafer-thin layer of glass can be washed off and the pure PET reprocessed,” explains Andreas Klages for Barrier Technology Sales Management at KHS Corpoplast. “The recycling industry also profits from this as it only processes plastics which have been fully segregated by type and are free from contamination.” This is a significant argument for a bever- age producer like the Eckes-Granini Group. The German family business, headquartered in Nieder-Olm in Ger- many, has revenues of around €900 million a year from sales in over 80 countries. Its premium Granini brand is well known all over the world and hohes C synonymous with top-quality orange juice in Germany. Quality is priority at Eckes-Granini, from selec- tion of fruit and raw materials, through production to the finished product. The company places special focus on sustainability; not only in conjunc- tion with the origin and procurement of raw materials but through the entire value chain. As well as its focus on ecological, economical and socially responsible production and logistics processes, the company also pays attention to resource-saving packag- ing with excellent recycling options. This is also a consumer concern. Optimum recycling properties “One of the important advan- tages of the FreshSafe PET bottle is that it can weigh a lot less than a multilayer variant but has at least the same if not better diffusion values, while providing correspond- ingly powerful product protection,” says Hermann Naumann, plant man- ager for Eckes-Granini in Bad Fall- ingbostel, Lower Saxony. “What are just as important are the recycling properties, which allow us to use up to 50% recycled PET in bottle The layout of the InnoPET FreshSafe block at Eckes-Granini’s Bad Fallingbostel site is compact and low on space. Eckes-Granini plant manager Hermann Naumann (right) and Bernd- Thomas Kempa from KHS Corpoplast