PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2018

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 03/18 www.petpla.net 30 Serac launches Aseptic Combox for low to medium production rates Aseptic to go During 2017, Serac announced the launch of its combined PET linear blower (SBL) and rotary weight filling machine, marketed under the trade name of Combox. Around 15 units had been installed by the end of the year at customer premises in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Now, an aseptic version is available. The Combox aseptic version pro- vides new opportunities in the dairy and beverages industry by offering a low and medium work-rate solution for applications using pH neutral and acidic products, says Serac. Aseptic bottle packaging includes volumes of up to 12,000 PET bph for the 1-litre format and up to 18,000 PET bph for 250ml formats. Serac states that the range of of integrated, medium work-rate asep- tic filling machines is currently very limited and that the Aseptic Combox offers a single-unit, blowing-filling solution for this market. On the go and flexible Packaging of beverages in small bottles, outside the cold chain and with re-closable and easy-to-hold bottles, is ideally suited to the needs of ‘nomad’/’on- the-go’ consump- tion – for example, at school, in sport halls or in the office. Serac maintains that the Aseptic Combox gives bot- tlers and produc- ers the opportunity to capitalise on this trend and take advantage of new and developing market opportunities, and that the range of products offered by bottlers could be rap- idly expanded by the use of a production tool that offers both high performance and flexibility. Improved safety, operations and operation Positive and direct transfer of containers by the neck between the blower and the filling machine limits the risk of container contamination, and the elimination of container trans- fer via silos, uprighters, etc., reduces investment costs. Combox has no open air conveyor. This helps to make it a more compact and more reliable, with less risk of blockages. As both HMI control panels are located on the same support, a single operator can run the entire unit. Per- oxide (H 2 O 2 ) container decontamina- tion reduces the risk of re-contamina- tion just before filling. Serac claims that Combox is a flexible system with fast, easy and risk-free format changeover. As the blower is located outside the sterile zone, there is no risk of re-contam- ination when the forming mould is changed. Tool changes at the filling machine exit also take place outside the sterile zone. The provision of easier access points outside the isola- tor makes maintenance simpler. The Aseptic Combox incorporates Serac’s SAS 5 filling machine, which meets the strictest requirements for sensitive products. The current model features H 2 O 2 sterilisation of bottles & caps as standard. Serac says that a version with βluStream, its latest sterilisation module, will have its com- mercial launch during 2018. www.serac-group.com Filling Special