Hot New Fillers

Hot-fill technology is a response to consumer needs in recent years for quality beverage products. With this system, the overall quality of beverages, even the most sensitive, requires expert control over the temperature in both the processing and filling stages. This result can be obtained with the Sidel Veloce range.

As one of the world’s leading suppliers of beverage packaging equipment, Sidel designed the Veloce filler range specifically for hot-fill applications such as fruit juices and nectars, teas, isotonics and beverages with milk packaged in PET or glass bottles. By keeping the temperature of the product constant, and therefore also the bottle, the hot-fill process guarantees total security, quality and flavor without any need for chemical agents. The Veloce filling process makes it possible to keep the temperatures at the set values in all working conditions, even during machine stoppages.

In addition to the existing Veloce filler based on mechanical filling valve technology, Sidel is rounding out its offering with the Veloce FM, a filler with an electronic flow meter filling valve. Sidel’s Veloce FM guarantees accurate filling, thanks to electronic flow meters that measure the precise amount of product to be filled. Like the Veloce, prior to filling, the filling valve is lowered on to the bottle so no mechanical movement of the container is required. This reduces the likelihood of product spillage. The liquid then flows by gravity into the bottle. Headspace is determined as part of the recipe, which can be automatically controlled and changed from the HMI.

Because the Veloce FM does not recirculate the product through the bottle, the system eliminates cross contamination from the bottle into the filling valve. This feature guarantees higher product quality. The first Veloce FM is up and running at Pepsi Cola in Caucagua, Venezuela, where it is filling Gatorade products at 85 deg C.

While the filling technologies of the Veloce and Veloce FM are different, they are built on the same simple and flexible platform consisting of a rinsing system (in the wet configuration), bottle handling, product supply, and capping system. To meet the varying demands of markets around the world, Sidel offers three different hot-fill machine configurations: wet (with water rinser), dry (without water rinser) and ultra-clean (with chemical bottle decontamination and an isolator-style hygienic chamber).



On the line
Sidel also offers a competitive blow molding equipment with unprecedented outputs, special package solutions with innovative designs and lighter molds to build a complete hot-fill line. A range of SBO Universal HR (Heat Resistant) blow molding machines produces heat set bottles at rates up to 1,800 bottles per hour per mold—the same rate as for cold-filled bottles. With the first HR blow molding machine unveiled in 1986 and over 500 HR blow molding machines installed worldwide, Sidel possesses unrivaled expertise in producing heat resistant packages at ultra-high temperatures.

Until now, HR bottles had one major flaw in the eyes of many customers: the bottles had to be designed with panels for added strength. Sidel found a way around panels and now offers two alternatives to customers: a panel-less HR bottle—smooth or with ribs (in which case the bottle dome absorbs stress) or a special bottle shape design with features that absorb stress.

Finally, in an ongoing effort to give customers the competitive edge, Sidel has developed the F300 mold, an alternative to traditional stainless steel molds normally used in HR blow molding.The new mold is made of aluminum and can withstand temperatures as high as 180 deg C, making it suitable for hot-fill PET bottle production.Three times lighter than stainless steel molds, the F300 mold promises gains in productivity. A lighter mold means less weight loaded on to the blow molding machine, making it mechanically possible to increase output. Finally, because an aluminum mold conducts heat more efficiently than a stainless steel mold, the F300 heats up and cools down rapidly, keeping wait times to a minimum.