BOTTLING / FILLING 25 PETplanet Insider Vol. 26 of-the-art KHS technology is helping us to successfully pursue this objective.” Less plastic use thanks to lightweighting Savings in resources are also being made by consumption of less material for primary packaging. Thanks to proven KHS stretch blow moulding technology, high-quality lightweight PET containers are now manufactured using up to 10 to 15% less raw material. Gwanetsa mentions a further major criterion with respect to sustainability: the long service life of the machines. “We’re factoring in the new NRET PET line for the next 20 years,” says the Schweppes expert. The longer the bottler operates a line, the lower its ecological footprint throughout its entire life cycle. Bradley Naicker, KHS sales manager for South Africa, reports on one special challenge faced in the course of this particular project. As the amount of room available at the Schweppes production site in Harare was extremely limited and the new system had to be installed in a small area, the KHS experts adapted the machinery to fit the available space. The line was thus installed in an L shape instead of the usual rectangle – in record time. Just six weeks after installation, the first saleable product ran off the belt – thanks to the good cooperation between KHS’ and SZL’s project teams. Individual palletising requests Special customer requirements also needed to be met in the robot palletising section. As the PET bottles are produced in certain special formats, the bottler uses specific pallets that, like the containers, do not correspond to the norm. “We were able to adapt the robot palletiser to pack the Shrink packer with field-proven economy: the modular Innopack PSP Advanced packaging machine can process up to 14,400 packs per hour in the high-capacity range. respective SKUs through individual robot programming and thus achieve an optimum result,” Naicker explains. Naicker happily looks back on what has been achieved here. “We’ve exceeded expectations regarding production capacities, economy and the use of resources. SZL is now bottling more beverages of a better quality at a lower cost and with a smaller carbon footprint.” www.khs.com
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