PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2020

PACKAGING / PALLETISING PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 05/20 www.petpla.net 20 Beyond natural water Mount Asama, the most active volcano in Japan, rises in the vicinity of Tsumagoi, in the prefec- ture of Gunma, an area rich in water springs. It is here that Tsumagoi Meisui Co. Ltd. bottling company is located. To meet the growing domestic demand for mineral water under the Tsuma- goi and Oku-Karaizawa brands, the company turned to SMI for the installation of a stretch blow- moulder EBS 3 K Ergon for the production of 0.32 l, 0.41 l and 0.5 l bottles in PET. The Tsumagoi Meisui Co. Ltd pro- duction plant is situated on a plateau 1,290m above sea level at the foot of Mt Azumaya (2,354m), one of the 100 most famous mountains in Japan. In winter its peak is covered by several metres of snow, which, when this melts, pen- etrates into the subsoil reaching deep into the mountain, to become a source of water that is high in quality and rich in nutrients. It is from this area that the Japanese company obtains the natural mineral water that it bottles, extracted by modern plants, from a 250m deep underground well. This water, which has properties that remain unchanged throughout the complete production process, has a constant temperature all year round of 9°C, it is very light (for this reason it is ideal for preparing tea, coffee and various dishes), it is slightly alkaline, with a PH of 7.6 like the body’s PH, furthermore, it is particularly suitable for babies as it has low percentages of magnesium and calcium. Investing for efficiency and improved availability The strong growth of the bottled water market in Japan has made it necessary for Tsumagoi Meisui to expand. In July 2018, to be able to support an increase in production, the need to reduce delivery time for the water in PET bottles under the brand Tsumagoi and Ok-Karauizawa, the Japanese company invested in a new EBS K Ergon stretch-blow moulder from Italian company SMI. This new equipment was installed in the exist- ing factory specifically for bottling water. It is equipped with the most modern technology within this sector. Increasing storage capacity and reducing distribution costs are the prerequisites for increasing produc- tion efficiency within a bottling plant. The third plant belonging to the Japanese company, Tsumagoi Meisui, inaugurated in December 2018, was built with the aim of storing products from the other production lines in the other two plants. However, various reasons, such as the strong demand from the Japanese market for bottled water and the necessity to upgrade the production structure, pushed the company into also investing in a new bottling line. The production volume of the existing line was around 120,000 cases per month, and now thanks to the new SMI machinery, which was recently installed, they will be able to reach a capacity of 150,000 cases/ month. The storage capacity of this third plant, will not only allow Tsuma- goi Meisui to store up to 20 days of production, it will also reduce logistic costs by around 6%, by eliminating storage and transport costs between the five warehouses they had previ- ously rented. The third Tsumagoi-Mura plant  Area occupied: 20,178 m 2  Construction began: May 2018  Activity began: December 2018  Effective storage capacity: around 180,000 cases  Capital invested: around 700 mil- lion yen PACKAGING From left to right: Hiromasa Suzuki, Sales Dept. At Correns; Minoru Toyota, President of Tsumagoi; Yoshiki Maeda, Sales Manager at Correns The Tsumagoi blower on show at the “Drink Japan 2018” exhibition The most active volcano in Japan, mount Asama, rises in the vicinity of Tsumagoi, in the prefecture of Gunma, an area rich with water springs, like that of the Tsumagoi Meisui Co. Ltd. Bottling company.