Blowmolding series produces 81,000 PET containers an hour

At 81,000 PET containers an hour, Krones AG believes its blowmolding machine produces the "world's best output."

"Producing 81,000 PET containers an hour with a single blowmolding machine, and dressing and filling them as well in a monobloc comprising a blowmolder, a labeler and a filler: this is currently the highest output worldwide that a beverage machinery manufacturer can offer," the company said.

With the latest generation of the Contiform 3 series, the market can now buy small cavity (SC) machines for the high-output range of up to 81,000 containers an hour. The high-speed stretch blowmolding machine for containers sized at a maximum 0.75 liters is fitted with a newly developed blowmolding station that operates entirely without lubrication. This reduces time by 70% needed for manual lubrication of the machine compared to the preceding model, and increases the machine's availability levels.

"Krones is thus not only setting up another world record for stretch blowmolding machines' output, but is also offering minimized operating costs," the company said.

Krones said that four Contiform 3 SC machines are already delivering this output at a bottler in the U.S. and another bottler has ordered two more machines. All six high-speed stretch blowmolding machines produced so far have been integrated into the Krones ErgoBloc L wet-end monobloc.

With the wet-end monobloc ErgoBloc L, Krones has integrated the technology of the Contiform 3 small cavity stretch blowmolding machine for small containers with Contiroll labeling technology featuring a Multireel automatic reel magazine, plus fillers from the new Modulfill series to create a purposefully synergized overall concept. The individual machines had been optimized beforehand with carefully chosen innovations for deployment in a monobloc configuration, and mutually networked using an intelligent control system, according to the company. The total operating costs save a reportedly 10% than for conventional bottling lines. In addition, the monobloc's footprint is 30% smaller.

Clients have meanwhile opted for this monobloc system in more than 50 projects, six of them featuring an ErgoBloc L rated at 81,000 containers an hour.