The growing popularity of dairy drinks in the Asian market has proved a windfall for Christchurch, New Zealand manufacturer Xenos Aseptic Beverage Systems.
The company, represented in Australia, by HBM Packaging Technologies, has recently sealed two new orders for its aseptic bottling and associated UHT sterilising equipment from dairy beverage manufacturers in South East Asia.
One system is currently in final manufacture and will be used to pack long life white and flavoured milk products in different bottle sizes.
The other customer has ordered two lines to make ready to drink (RTD) products filled into PET bottles, with a total output in excess of 50 million bottles per year on both lines and production speeds of 6000bph on each.
Xenos says the customer chose the machinery due to its small footprint, ease of use and flexibility to fill a range of different bottle sizes.
The system was also appealing to the customer as it could match its capital investment with sales demand, and have the ability to install additional lines as required.
Established in 2003, Xenos has pioneered a number of advances in aseptic filling, including having developed and commercialised a compact technology for aseptic processing and packaging that now has global reach.
Xenos Aseptic fillers use a combination of hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) and ultraviolet (UV) light to ensure reliable and effective sterilisation of the bottles and closures.
The use of UV in addition to the HPV, for sterilising bottles, adds an increased level of sterility performance, and was developed by Xenos in conjunction with New Zealand’s Massey University, renowned internationally for its research in dairy and food processing.
Xenos designed, prototyped, and built this aseptic processing technology, putting it through extensive and rigorous proof-of-concept testing in its own beverage business (producing three million units per year), before making it commercially available in 2008.
