Vitaqua – bottling lines designed for maximised performance

Around 60 different soft drinks, approximately four million fills a day – these are the key statistics for the new Vitaqua facility of the mineral water bottlers Brandenburger Urstromquelle in Breuna, Germany. Besides the entire process technology for beverage production, four bottling lines, each rated at 43,200 bph, are accommodated in an optimum layout configuration.
Each line is assigned one Contiform S24 stretch blow-moulding machine, which supplies it with bottles via an AirCo conveyor. The four Modulfill fillers, with Monotec columns and no front tables, are covered by a cleanroom roof and thus meet the toughest of hygiene standards. Aseptic servo-cappers, Checkmat FM+K+L inspection units use a camera system to monitor the fill level and check that the bottles have been correctly capped.
At the four constructionally identical Contiroll HS labellers, the use of two labelling stations on each machine ensures smooth running.
Two Accutable buffer units in each line provide sufficient buffering time between the filler and the labeller, and between the labeller and the packer, with concomitant gains in line efficiency.
The lines have been designed to be run from operator control centres, which means only a small team is required. The four blow-moulding machines located in a separate hall are supervised by just a single employee. Pairs of lines are arranged in mirror-image layouts, so that two fillers and two labellers are relatively close to each other and can likewise be supervised by a single operator.
Integration of a Krones line management system (LMS) enables the orders to be scheduled on the line in the optimum combinations – a procedure that creates a major savings effect, particularly in terms of product change-over times.