Cider bottling to a high level of excellence

In order to meet the demand for its popular cider, Bulmers LTD has gradually expanded its bottling operations to incorporate several lines.
The most recent addition to the bottling operation is two identical Krones lines for supplying the export markets of the fast-selling cider. The new lines in the bottling hall of the production facility in Clonmel, Ireland, are both designed for a rating of 50,000 bph, with reference to the 568-ml bottle. They are used solely for filling Magners cider in non-returnable bottles. After being depalletised, the bulk glass containers for cider filling are passed to the empty-bottle inspector for quality control. The cider is blended in each line using a Contiflow mixer, which also provides an option for producing cider light with a reduced calorie content.
The empty bottles are then conveyed to the filler. The glass-enclosed rinser-filler-capper BLOC, featuring a Mecafill VKPV-CF filler, is equipped with numerous features for automated cleaning. The Variojet has been designed as an ozone rinser, while the BLOC incorporates an integrated electronic Checkmat fill level inspector. Krones also supplied a Multimatic labeller with two cold-glue stations for dressing the cider bottles, plus an integrated inspection system for monitoring the labels and a bottle date-coding unit.