Spumador Aseptic Bottling Line, Sant'andrea Bagni, Parma, Italy

The Italian company Spumador, which bottles soft drinks, fruit juices, mineral water, tea-based drinks and dairy products, has increased the bottling capacity at its Sant'Andrea Bagni facility in the Parma region of Italy. The company has invested €20 million in the installation of a new state-of-the-art aseptic bottling line.

The new line, which is configured for aseptic use, handles fruit juices, tea drinks and milk drinks. The project to install the new system was divided into two phases. The first phase was based on a linear filler with an output of 6,000 bottles per hour (bph) for 1.5 litre bottles, which was installed in late 2003. The second phase, begun in early 2004, involves the installation of a Simonazzi Aseptica R rotary filler to increase the production capacity to 24,000bph for 1.5-litre bottles.

MAIN SUPPLIER

The contract to supply the new bottling line was awarded to SIG Simonazzi, an Italian company that forged a solid relationship with Spumador in 1999 when they supplied the previous aseptic bottling line at the plant. The old bottling line operates at 13,000bph and is still in excellent condition. However, a newer line was required to increase bottling output and to take advantage of new technology in handling complex products.

The system is designed for the bottling of complex products such as fruit juices containing a significant proportion of fruit pulp or drinks with a sensitive pH (in the acidic range up to 7) into PET bottles. The company bottles not only drinks under its own brand names such as S. Francesco, S. Andrea, S. Antonio and Spumador, but also beverages for many large supermarket chains such as Lidl, Carrefour, Conad, Bennet and Standa, and major companies such as Coca-Cola and Carlsberg.

EQUIPMENT

The containers for the system are made of PET and have either 38mm plastic screw top closures or 38mm flat and sports cap closures. The system can handle a range of bottle sizes, including 1.5-litre, 1-litre, 75cl, 50cl, 33cl and 20cl. The bottles are shrink-wrapped in plastic only, prior to palletising and storage before distribution. The new system has a flexibility that Spumador requires to expand its customer base.

The new system starts with concentrated product storage units, product preparation and sterilisation. These units were supplied by another SIG subsidiary, SIG Manzini. The BLOMAX 16 Series III blow moulder equipped with compressor, cooling tower and refrigeration unit produces the bottles for the filling line. SIG Corpoplast supplied this machinery. The Simonazzi Aseptica L-DSP aseptic filling line with dry sterilisation capability, which also has the ability to seal with aluminium seals, fills the bottles before they are capped using a PK 6T capper level control.

Other parts of the integrated system include a Mojonnier Starblend electronic mix processor, the Alfa Rollquattro F25 18 T labelling machine, a sleever, a shrinkwrapper, a Simonazzi Kombi 1P 2I palletiser, aseptic air conveyors and conveyors for filled bottles and packs.

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