BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 11/22 www.petpla.net 17 PETplanet: How important are sustainability and environmental protection to Ishka, and to your customers? Sutton: As a company we are determined to do everything possible to guide consumer behaviour towards the necessary change, to solve the global waste problem and to safeguard marine life. Many of the innovative activities at Ishka Irish Spring Water are about finding optimal solutions for the packaging of our spring water. We chose rPET because it is currently the packaging option that is the most eco-friendly. Furthermore, we are constantly striving to minimise the environmental impact of our business through a series of initiatives, including the use of recyclable plastics such as rPET and light BPA-free plastics and reducing the weight of the containers. In fact, all the bottles that leave our production plants are 100% recyclable. Further help in protecting the environment, comes from the fact that we produce rPET bottles on site, thus eliminating the need to transport them by road to our factory. Our company is also part of Repak, Ireland’s leading environmental non-profit organisation for the recycling and sustainability of packaging waste. As a member, we help fund projects for the development of fully recyclable household containers and for the creation of national recycling centers. PETplanet: How do you see the future of the bottled water industry? Sutton: The demand for bottled spring water in Ireland, is estimated to continue to grow in the coming years. Customers are increasingly interested in “premium” products, in knowing how they are produced and what they contain. At Ishka, we have great respect for the territory that hosts us and for the water it provides; for this reason, we undertake all possible initiatives to ensure the purity of our source and the surrounding environment. Every investment aimed at protecting the eco-system in which we operate, is a guarantee to maintain the quality of our products today, tomorrow, and forever. PETplanet: We thank you very much for the interview. Installed machinery: After a longstanding partnership SMI developed the production line for 5 l containers, which has allowed Ishka to increase plant capacity by over 50%. The expansion project was necessary to upgrade the existing line, this involved replacing the old linear blow moulder with a modern integrated SMI Ecobloc system, consisting of a 3-cavity rotary blow moulder, an electronic filler and a capper. The 3,600 bph bottling and packaging line for 5 l bottles consists of an Ecobloc 3-9-3 HC Ergon with a DV 500 divider & SK502T Ergon shrinkwrapper and finally an APS 1550 Ergon palletiser & conveyor belts. This system upgrade permitted the installation of a faster and more efficient stretch-blow moulding and filling system, while at the same time maintaining a compact footprint, thanks to the fact that no conveyor belts are necessary between the blow moulder and the filler. The new project also posed a challenge in secondary packaging, as Ishka required shrink film pack formats in 2x1 and 3x1 and a large (4x5) tray format to make a half pallet pack. The 2x1 and 3x1 pack sizes in film only, are made by the SK 502T Ergon shrinkwrapper, which, after the format change, is also used to create a “super” format consisting of a halfpallet display tray without shrink film. The packaging system groups 20 bottles in a 4x5 pattern, then forms a tray around the bottles, starting from a flat blank; subsequently, the package thus created, is palletised and sent to supermarkets, ready for display. For the 16,000 bph end of line for the packaging of 250ml & 500ml PET bottles a CSK42 F Ergon & LSK30F shrinkwrappers with an APS 1550 Ergon palletiser and conveyor belt has been installed. By combining a CSK42F Ergon twin lane shrink wrapper and an LSK30F Ergon shrinkwrapper to repack in film only, Ishka create “packin-pack” packages for large distribution. With the APS 1550 Ergon palletiser manages half pallets, europallets and UK pallets and has an optional system that automatically loads the half pallets, on standard pallets for storage in the warehouse. www.smigroup.it www.irishspringwater.com
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