For a new bottling line at Chelmsford, which handles its Robinsons Fruit Shoot range of soft drinks, Britvic opted for a space-efficient solution known as a ‘block filler’. Such systems integrate filling, capping and labelling operations employing an arrangement of carousels to transfer bottles from one operation to the next within a small footprint of factory floor allocation.
After initial runs, it was found that the bottles were too wet for both efficient labelling and inkjet coding. Free-standing compressed air jets located outside the block filler enclosure were installed to overcome these problems but they proved to be inefficient, noisy and expensive to run.
The company then turned to Air Control Industries of Chard who suggested a hybrid version of its ‘JetPlate’ plenum-base bottle drying system.
ACI’s JetPlate is a development of conventional airknife technology which is used widely for drying conveyorised products, including bottles and cans.
For standard bottling lines, Jetplate systems comprise two facing plenums, each with stepped air delivery slots that drive water down and off bottles. These plenums also double as bottle guides, which positions them close to the bottles being dried enabling them to deliver higher volumes of air more effectively.
For the Britvic application, because of the radiused carousel arrangement, the solution had to be different.
It turned out to be two specially engineered plenums constructed to a radius that permitted them to be mounted directly on the conveyor track inside the block filler.
In addition to achieving the levels of drying demanded, these plenums achieved it without the need for alterations to the block filler, plus more safely and at a much lower cost than the previously tried compressed air alternative.
Further, ACI’s JetPlate drying system managed to achieve effective drying despite the complex contours of the PET bottles for two bottle sizes, 200 and 300ml, without adjustment.
‘The ACI JetPlate system appears to be a very effective solution’, said Shayne Ford, Project Manager, Britvic Soft Drinks. ‘It dries the bottles effectively to ensure the paper labels can be applied correctly and do not deteriorate due to residual moisture, and that the inkjet coding is sharp and legible.’