Bonafont, a Mexican company within Groupe Danone based in Apodaca, near Monterey in northern Mexico, has chosen Procomac to supply a complete still water bottling line. A peculiar feature of the line is the bottle size: a cylindrical 4 litre bottle is packed in 3x2 shrink-wrap packs, an unusual size for European consumers, and a well fitted size for a country like Mexico, with high per capita consumption of bottled beverages. The line features a SIPA SF 3-mould linear blow-moulder; Procomac has supplied a bloc for bottle treatment with de-ionised air and a 16 filling heads gravity filler complete with Arol 4-head capper. Line speed is in excess of 3,000 bottles per hour. To ensure a high stability of these massive containers a liquid nitrogen injection systems has been installed between the filling carrousel and the capper; in this way it is possible to obtain an internal overpressure inside the bottles to increase their stiffness and, at the same time, an inertisation of the head space is also performed. Procomac supply extends to bottle and packs conveyors, whereas the shrink-wrapper is from Gampack. Procomac packaging has supplied a Primus 1000 low level infeed palletiser: an essential machine, with a reduced number of components, particularly suited for low and medium speed production lines.
(06/05/2007)