Packaging solutions company Serac has launched an aseptic blowing and filling solution that combines its PET linear blower with its rotary weight filling machine in a single unit.
The Aseptic Combox provides new opportunities in dairy and beverages by offering a low and medium work-rate solution for applications using pH-neutral and acidic products with volumes of up to 12,000 PET bottles per hour for the one-litre format, and up to 18,000 PET bottles per hour for the smaller 250ml formats.
According to Serac, bottles are playing a greater role in the long conservation products market, particularly in small and medium size formats. Packaging of beverages in small bottles, outside the cold chain, is adapted to the needs of on-the-go consumption, with reclosable and easy-to-hold bottles.
The Aseptic Combox offers positive and direct transfer of containers by the neck between the blower and the filling machine, which limits the risk of container contamination.
In addition, H2O2 decontamination of containers reduces the risk of re-contamination just before filling.
The flexible system also can change the container format quickly and easily. As the blower is located outside the sterile zone, there is no risk of re-contamination when changing the forming mold. The change of tooling at the filling machine exit also takes place outside the sterile zone.
The Aseptic Combox solution also incorporates the SAS 5 filling machine, which meets the strictest requirements for sensitive products. Serac will soon be proposing the Aseptic Combox in a version where container decontamination is carried out by e-beam, due to a new sterilisation module known as BluStream.
