PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2018

PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 07+08/18 www.petpla.net 43 TRADE SHOW REVIEW Liquiform technology is in the starting blocks for drinks bottling Liquid soap: just the beginning by Kay Barton 43 TRADE SHOW REVIE W Liquiform’s concept of consoli- dating the forming and filling process has caused quite a stir globally. The presentation of the technology with the new KHS FormFill machine at the KHS stand at the latest Drink- tec 2017 has made clear that this could herald a revolution- ary process for the drinks and PET-processing industry. At NPE in Orlando, we spoke exten- sively with Vice President and General Manager Ashish Saxena, as well as with Technical & Commercial Director Richard Sieradzki, about the current state of the technology and upcoming developments. Liquiform’s small stand at NPE seemed unimposing for such a revolutionary technology, whose licen- sees and cooperation partners include companies such as Amcor, KHS, Krones and Sidel. Its principle was explained by a video presentation, including a high- speed recording of the fill-form process, on quite a modestly sized screen. Vice President and General Manager Ashish Saxena reached over to the presentation shelf beside him and set down the bottle filled with water in front of us. “Form-fill is taking on concrete form,” he began. “Now that liquid soap has been successfully bottled using the Liquiform principle and is now on the supermarket shelves, we can succes- sively advance into the drinks sector.” Of course, in the months between the announcement and the presentation, a crucial question had been repeated from all sides: the technology works, but as well as the non-food sector can it also be applied to food and drink, without food becoming contaminated? “We can now answer with a clear yes,” said Mr Saxena. “In addition to beauty care, detergents and engine oil, we have also carried out success- ful tests for water and ice tea in various, in some cases complex bottle forms, with fill quantities of 200ml to 2l, bottled both cold and hot. No adverse effects were found. Further smaller and larger volumes are planned.” The process works equally well with PET and HDPE material or preform. In addition to con- siderable energy saving offered by the combination of blow moulding and filling, compressor output and space require- ments are reduced as well. Furthermore, comprehensive testing demonstrated improved material distribution in the bottle wall compared to traditional stretch blow moulding, and top load capacity increased by up to 20%. “Additionally, thanks to the direct forming by liquid, we achieve a more detailed, finer and more defined struc- ture for graphic applications on the bottle surface, compared with conventional blow moulded ones, and the fill level variation is less than 0.5 %,” he said. A further saving, in maintenance, is also expected to become apparent, due to the omission of a production step. How- ever, another question that Liquiform is frequently confronted with is: what about the cycle time? “If we take the time for stretch blow moulding and filling per unit as a basis, we already have similar values in terms of time.” Liquiform has confirmed that the technology can be integrated into exist- ing fill lines and that only small altera- tions become necessary in the areas of hygiene and downstream handling. www.liquiformgroup.com