PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2018

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 03/18 www.petpla.net 35 Preform sterilisation The 2Step sterilisation has the advantage that it is much simpler to perform and that product-dependent parts and moulds can be replaced much faster than on a sterile blow moulder. On the stretch blow moulder changeovers are made under normal environmen- tal conditions; this does not affect the degree of microbiological risk. In this context Niehr refers to another important benefit of 2Step sterilisation.“Preform sterilisation enables the bottle material to be disinfected upstream of the stretch blow moulder. Experience has shown that only few very micro-organisms come again into contact with the bottle in the stretch blow moulder. Bearing this in mind we can considerably streamline the disinfection of the ‘finished’ bottles, which in turn greatly reduces the footprint of our machine.” Another advantage of this process is that in aseptic filling according to hygiene class V the amount of hydrogen peroxide required for sterilisation can be decreased and the bottle drying temper- ature lowered. For reliable, recontamina- tion-free filling it is of central importance that the aseptic or hygienic zone and the external influences on this zone are kept down to a minimum. This means that all modular fillers can be blocked with standard stretch blow moulders from KHS. A specially developed block module for the hygienic transfer of the fully blown bottles to the filler reduces the space requirement, lowers the amount of investment, cuts down on the installation effort and calls for much less intervention in the customer’s infrastructure. “Safety always comes first,” explains Niehr. “As simpler the cleaning and monitoring of the system, as lower is the risk of recontamination. This is why all electronic components, drives, wires and piping are positioned outside the aseptic zone; even with the capper only the cone is in the area to be sterilised. The fewer parts there are in this section, the less I have to keep clean as a bottler.” A sophisticated room-within-a-room con- cept with cladding doors mechanically protects the seals in the aseptic section, providing not only maximum hygienic safety but also ease of operation. The principle of clearly separating the pro- cess and filler areas is another plus where hygiene is concerned. The valve manifold and sterile air filter are placed at the top of the systems to keep the space The modular design of the rotary filler block is flexible with regard to its hygiene class and capacity. It cuts costs and reduces delivery times. required for the sterilisation unit, filler and capper as small as possible. The aseptic zone on KHS’ rotary machines takes up just 12 to 14 cubic meters of space, depending on the container size. Economical system Alongside all of the hygienic safety features, for which KHS’ entire sensi- tive product portfolio has stood for many years, the modular system gives sensi- tive beverage bottlers three main advan- tages, emphasises Niehr. “Firstly, thanks to the concept of modularisation our customers can configure their machines exactly according to their requirements. Oversized systems not running at full capacity often lead to longer down- times which always increase the risk of contamination. Secondly, modularisa- tion leads to standardisation, which in turn means that in principle all basic and module parts can be pre-produced and stocked by KHS. The customer thus benefits from shorter delivery times. And thirdly, the modular system also gener- ates certain cost benefits,” concludes Niehr. “These savings give us additional scope for integrating further safety systems, with which we consistently endeavour to permanently increase the standard of safety on our aseptic filling machines.” www.khs.com Preventive maintenance of aseptic machines The standards of quality in hygienic filling are high – as is the cost of pro- duction downtime. KHS provides a proven preventive maintenance system for both the linear and rotary version of its Innosept Asbofill aseptic filler – with fixed modules at fixed prices. KHS offers special maintenance modules which Thomas Niehr, head of Aseptic Filling Technology for KHS in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, describes as being comparable to a service for a car. The intervals are always gauged by certain time cycles and machine operating hours, with KHS providing the material packages and engineers. During maintenance not only are smaller wear parts replaced; the overall condition of the machine is inspected and settings are corrected where applicable. The customer is given detailed infor- mation on all results in a concluding machine status report. “We coordinate the entire maintenance management process together with the customer. This again increases machine and production safety and reliability. A dairy, for instance, can’t afford long downtimes. Customers know exactly how much maintenance costs them. It’s also possible to compute costs according to the number of bottles filled, with a fixed allocation of maintenance costs to prod- uct giving bottlers planning security,” Niehr emphasises. Physically separating the process technology (above) from the filling system (below) results in a smaller aseptic zone and improved hygiene.