Labelling with sleeves – an elegant solution

Besides milk-based mixed beverages, drinking yoghurts and drinking whey, ESL milk (extended shelf-life) is a new and increasingly important segment of the market for Berglandmilch, Austria’s market leader and its Klagenfurt facility. Besides a Krones Ultra-Clean bottling line with a blow-moulding machine and a rinser/weighing-filler/labeller BLOC, at the filler’s discharge, outside the cleanroom, the Sleevematic DS sleeving labeller is likewise linked up by direct mechanical BLOC-synchronisation. On the inline variant of the Sleevematic DS, the sleeve is transferred directly: it is pulled over the entire container by a lowering device and positioned flush with the base.
An expanding mandrel opens the sleeve, for enhancing cutting accuracy. In the cutting unit, the sleeve is cut to precisely the preselected length by several servo-controlled blades, after it has first been fitted. Once the sleeve has been transferred to the bottle, it is then shrunk onto the bottle in a steam tunnel.
Sleeving technology creates quite a few operational advantages. The machine doesn’t have to be cleaned after every shift. Since no glue is required, a glue heater isn’t needed either. The shrink-sleeve, moreover, can serve simultaneously as a tamper-evident seal. The Sleevematic DS Inline also provides exceptionally short change-over times when different containers or sleeves are scheduled. Fitted with hinged guard doors, the machine features a transit conveyor with its own frequency-controlled drive.