EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 05/24 www.petpla.net 34 From the preform to the fi nished Safa brand Drinking water from the holy city of Mecca by Kay Barton 25 kilometres west of the central Islamic pilgrimage site of Mecca is the Makkah Water Co. bottling plant, which processes one of the best-known Saudi water brands “Safa” on state-of-the-art Krones equipment and fills it in PET. The production of preforms and closures is also vertically integrated here. The company is headed by General Manager Sheikh Ali Saad Bin Zomah and is part of the Bin Zomah Group, which amongst other activities also operates a second bottling plant with the “Mozn” water brand near the city of Gizan, not far from the border with Yemen. We visited Makkah Water and met Mr Bapu Kumaresh, the master of the injection moulding division, who showed us around his plant. EDITOUR Makkah Water was founded in 1975 with the aim of supplying the population and pilgrims in the region around Mecca with clean drinking water. Where previously PVC bottles were used, PET bottles were used from 1998 onwards. Four Sidel lines for PET filling were commissioned this year, while Husky machines to produce preforms were put into operation in the same year. First, we visited the separate injection moulding area on the large company premises. Bapu Kumaresh’s office and meeting room is virtually right next to the plastics machines for producing preforms and closures. Mr Kumaresh has been on board the company for almost ten years as the Operations Manager responsible for the injection moulding section and can now look back on a career of almost thirty years in the field of plastics processing. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Plastics Processing Technology and worked for many years at plastics processor Savola, among others. “For the production of 9.1 g preforms for 330 ml bottles, we use two 144-cavity Husky HyPET HPP4 systems, as well as two Xform 350s from Sipa with 128 and 96 cavities respectively,” explained Mr Kumaresh. “We also have three Huayan models in operation, two with 96 cavities each for 14.4 g preforms for our 600 ml bottles and one for 81 g preforms for our 5 l bottles. For our 29/25 caps we use Netstal systems, two Elion with 96 cavities each, two Synergy with 72 each and two more Synergy machines with 96 cavities each.” Translated into output, this means 6 million 9.1 g, 1.6 million 14.4 g and 140,000 81 g preforms and closures daily. “We also produce 7.9 g preforms, for 200 ml, in our sister company in Gizan. There are two Netstal PETline and two Elion lines at the Al Janoub plant.” The bottler processes municipal, desalinated seawater for Safa. In the water treatment section on the company premises, one of the largest water treatment systems from Krones to date was designed and built, with a water throughput of 3 x 110 m3/h, which was put into operation as part of a major modernisation phase 2022. The treatment process involves ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and electro-de-ionisation. Minerals are then added and the water is ozonised. The water treated in this way is finally packaged on a total of six Krones Ergobloc L bottling Bapu Kumaresh (right) with Kay Barton in front of the Sipa Xform F.l.t.r.: Mohammed Elnassag, Production Section Head, Bapu Kumaresh and Bernardino Jr. Enriquez Enrix, Filling Dept. Maintenance Head The injection moulding team with Bapu Kumaresh showing the location of the plant on the Road Show map.
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