Aseptic Blow Filling (ABF) is a complete new concept for aseptic filling: it’s the world’s first rotary aseptic blow moulding machine with an integrated aseptic filler and capper. The principle is to sterilize the preform with Hydrogen Peroxide at the exit of the oven; then blow the preforms with sterile air in a sterile environment and maintain this sterility throughout the filling and capping process. Achieving this minimises the use of chemicals, requires no bottle rinsing, enables a simpler and smaller layout and reduces energy consumption.
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The concept
- Sterilizing the preform instead of the bottle reduces the quantity of sterilizing agent used as the preform is smaller and has a more simple shape than the bottle itself.
- As the preform is made of thicker material than the bottle itself it’s possible to increase the temperature of the treatment without risk of shrinkage that would affect the shape of the bottle. This allows the weight of the bottle to be reduced compared to traditional aseptic systems.
- ABF provides flexibility, sustainability and space saving.
- ABF is an extremely flexible system that can blow and fill up to 48,000 bottles per hour and operate at different levels of decontamination appropriate for each product. This allows products with different shelf-life - low-acid aseptic beverages, high-acid aseptic beverages, ESL beverages, water, etc. – to be produced on the same system.
- ABF can be used for ambient or cold-filling operations.
- The system uses almost no chemicals or water. Energy usage is kept to a minimum by the elimination of air conveyors, sterilization and rinsing carousels, water UHT sterilization, and steam.
- The whole system is more compact than traditional technology and requires fewer operators.