BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 09/24 www.petpla.net 26 South American beverage multi Postobón installs three KHS lines Hattrick in Colombia With over 50 million inhabitants, Colombia is the second-largest state in South America after Brazil and one of the most substantial growth markets on the continent. Colombia’s best-selling beverage producer is Postobón, a big player that exports its products to 27 different countries worldwide. In the InnoPET BloFill, KHS combines stretch blow moulding technology with energy-efficient, flexible filling machinery. (Photos: Juan Cristobal Cobo) Its vast and highly diverse portfolio includes water and soft drinks as well as primarily juice, teas, energy drinks, beer and coffee. In its role as contract filler, the company bottles Pepsi, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and Seven Up, plus Lipton Tea and Heineken beers. Of its 71 facilities, 20 are production sites that accommodate more than 100 filling lines, 20 of which are used for PET bottles. The company’s two largest complexes are located in the capital Bogotá, a metropolis of ten million, and in Malambo, a suburb of Barranquilla in the north of the country, where a greenfield project designed to house a total of eleven lines was begun in 2018. Three block systems Whereas in the past Postobón’s long-term relations with KHS focused on the supply of stretch blow moulders, in 2018, the Colombian bottler opted for its first block system. The first procured line includes an InnoPET TriBlock for water in plastic containers that comprises a stretch blow moulder, labeller and filler. At a maximum capacity of 54,000 bph, the line is technically convincing with consistent neck handling from the preform to the bottled product. With the KHS’ Bottles & Shapes program, a 600ml bottle was specifically developed for this application that saves 10 g of material and weigh. One particularly remarkable attribute in the dry section of the line is the multifuel burner on the Innopack Kisters SP that enables the shrink tunnel to be flexibly heated by either natural or propane gas. In Postobón, the installation and the work performed by the team on site the company ordered two more block systems within the space of 18 months. The second KHS line went into operation in Bogotá in 2021. This is also a turnkey filling line where a BloFill duo block for the hotfilling (HotFill+) of juice, tea and energy drinks with optional nitrogen dosing forms the heart of the line. Finally, the third KHS line was installed at the aforementioned site in 2023 – with a TriBlock for carbonated beverages such as Pepsi Cola. “We value KHS as one of the world’s most renowned manufacturers of plant engineering,” says César Bohórquez, who as national project manager for Postobón coordinates the implementation of all strategic growth projects. “We’re impressed by their pioneering technological standards for high-speed lines. We count on KHS with respect to the growth of our business as one of our key technology partners. They develop extensive and efficient systems for our processes that perfectly meet Postobón’s growth requirements.” The most recent project to come out of the two companies’ technological partnership is a new KHS InnoPET Blomax V stretch blow moulder. Integrated into an existing PET line by Postobón’s own converter Iberplast at the Caloto bottling plant, with its 20 cavities it can produce up to 45,000 bph in sizes ranging from 500ml to 1 l. On the line, the containers are filled with beverages such as juice, tea and energy drinks at temperatures of up to 85 °C. Sustainable and climate-friendly It was important to the Colombians that the beverage containers use as little plastic as possible, besides quality and efficiency, sustainability and protection of the climate are further major issues the bottler invests considerable sums of money in. In 2021, approximately US$ 30 million were spent on various social and environmental programs. Postobón’s biggest water brand Aqua Cristal is filled into bottles made entirely of rPET that themselves are fully recyclable. All told, the legal requirements for the avoidance of waste are more than met: for instance, the Colombians are proud of the fact that 72% of the packaging materials circulated by the company are recovered and reused. This figure even runs to 95% for glass bottles. Any reduction in the amount of material used for the company’s PET bottles must not be allowed to have a detrimental impact on their stability, however. On the small-format bottles for juice and tea, whose weight has been cut from 22 to 20 g, this is mainly prevented by nitrogen being injected into the head space, thus increasing the interior pressure in the container until it’s first opened. The six feet on the bottle base provide added rigidity and sturdiness. www.khs.com www.postobon.com Postobón’s wide range of products not only includes juice, soda pop and energy drinks but also other carbonated soft drinks, water, beer, tea and coffee.
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