Coopers Brewery, Australia
Great leaps and bounds Down Under
Peterstaler Mineralquellen / MineralBrunnen RhönSprudel / Stiftsquelle
Three mineral water bottling plants – three ultra-modern stretch blow molders
Pivovarna Union, Slovenia
Tradition meets enterprise
Boon Rawd Brewery, Thailand
Lines for PET and glass
One of the world’s fastest glass bottle filling lines is now in operation at Coopers Brewery in Adelaide, Australia. For this line, the company placed its trust in its longtime turnkey supplier KHS. Coopers ordered the first KHS bottling line 22 years ago and has since remained with KHS proven technology. The machines integrated into the new line include process engineering, depalletizer, filling and labeling machine, high-tech inspection equipment, packer, and palletizer. The capacity is up to 66,000 non-refillable bottles per hour.
A slope had to be bridged to the filler of the previous conveying system (from 4000 millimeters to 1200 millimeters) in the high-performance area between the bottle discharge at the new glass bulk depalletizer and the bottle infeed. The system now implemented enables the bottles to be conveyed at the same 1200-millimeter height. This resulted in a shortened conveying segment thus ensuring a smooth infeed of glass bottles to the filler. The modular labeling machine processes body, neck, and back labels at up to 74,000 bottles per hour. The focus of the design of this high-performance, non-refillable bottle line was particularly on low cost of operation as well. The optimized layout of the line areas enables the customer to have the line operated by only four machine operators.
Coopers, established in 1862 and Australia’s largest locally owned brewery, took delivery of a similar line as early as 2007. The company’s story of success has continued unabated since then; around 72 million liters of beer were sold in 2013. Incidentally, while the Australian beer market has been weakening for years, Coopers’ sales have increased steadily – in the past 20 years by an average of 9.6% per year. A sure sign of the outstanding popularity of the brewery’s beers (main brands: Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale). As a contracting partner, Coopers additionally produces the Carlsberg and Sapporo brands and distributes Mythos as well as Kronenbourg. Another interesting item: Coopers is the world’s biggest supplier of homebrew kits.
South Australia’s governor Kevin Scarce was among the guests attending the presentation of the new super line planned and installed by KHS in close cooperation with Coopers’ employees. This included installation supervision and extensive customer training courses held directly on site. All those participating benefited greatly from the consistent on-site support provided by KHS’ Australian subsidiary (key words: short distances, quick decisions). Kurt Hofmann, managing director of the subsidiary: “Our team Down Under has been showing for many years that KHS is not only a reliable partner when it comes to technology but also a partner who responds 100% to the needs and requirements of its customers. In the case of Coopers, we think the same way they do.” This is also confirmed by managing director Dr. Tim Cooper approvingly, “We are absolutely satisfied with KHS’ complete package of machines and services.”
No less than three of Germany’s mineral water bottlers of renown now trust in KHS stretch blow molding technology. Peterstaler Mineralquellen in Bad Peterstal, MineralBrunnen RhönSprudel in Ebersburg-Wheyhers, and Stiftsquelle / Johann Spielmann in Dorsten recently exchanged their PET bottle blow molders, some over ten years old, for a next-generation machine: the KHS InnoPET Blomax Series IV.
As all three companies have similarly dedicated themselves to the careful use of natural resources, the big savings in energy, product changeovers and service costs especially – just some of the benefits offered by the latest in KHS stretch blow molding technology – prove convincing. Here are some impressive examples:
- Energy costs cut by about one third
- Product changeover times reduced from 90 to around 15 minutes
- Faster heating times of the heater for higher productivity levels
- Lower spare part and service costs thanks to optimized technology.
Peterstaler Mineralquellen has been around since 1926. Mineral water from this idyllic little town in the Black Forest is famous well beyond the local area; as long ago as in 1980 American magazine Consumer Report congratulated the company on winning its taste and quality test with the slogan ’Peterstaler #1 in the USA’. Peterstaler has also long been a successful premium product in the hotel and hospitality trade, launching its own gourmet line to market and collecting a series of renowned awards for its various brands.
The RhönSprudel Group is in the top ten of Germany’s approximately 220 mineral water bottling plants. The company has been utilizing the RhönSprudel mineral water springs since 1781 and was taken over by the Schindel family in 1911. All company activities now take place under the auspices of Egon Schindel Holding. The plant’s protected location in the Rhön biosphere reserve explains why RhönSprudel is naturally pure – just one of the reasons why the company feels especially committed to the environment.
Stiftsquelle / Johann Spielmann started up in 1894 when Johann Spielmann began delivering his products to customers in wooden barrels by horse-drawn cart. The company based in Dorsten in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia is now a model company with premium products and cutting-edge technology and logistics.
Incidentally, as part of its optimization program for preform and bottle design (Bottles & Shapes) KHS has developed new, lighter weight PETCYCLE bottles for both Stiftsquelle and Peterstaler.
When Andrej Varsek strolls through the production area of his beloved traditional brewery, he looks back on the 150 years of the Pivovarna Union brewery with pride. The company in Ljubljana is still one of the most successful makers of beer in Slovenia – and far beyond. As technical director Varsek believes in technology from KHS. Partners Pivovarna Union and KHS have enjoyed a close and trusting relationship for more than 40 years.
Just recently the brewery had KHS replace the entire packaging area of its main glass line, boosting its overall line efficiency by an impressive 17%. It’s now planning on having the filling area completely modified in order to save more media here, too, and minimize maintenance costs. “Our formula for success is really quite simple,” smiles Andrej Varsek. “Continuous expansion of our product line plus permanent modernization of our systems equals greater success throughout the whole of Europe.”
The Union’s chief product is and always has been beer in its many styles: lager, pilsner, premium, non-alcoholic beer, non-alcoholic shandy, lemon shandy, grapefruit shandy, and blood orange shandy. The company also produces the non-alcoholic Sola brand, which is very well known in Slovenia, spring water Zala, flavored waters, and other soft drinks. Union has therefore invested extensively in various KHS lines which have been reliably and convincingly servicing the brewery and helping to improve quality for many years.
Boon Rawd Brewery in Thailand has taken delivery of no less than three filling lines from KHS. A PET line for processing still water at a capacity of 36,000 0.5 to 1.5-liter bottles per hour is now operating at each of the bottling plants in Wangnoi and Surratthani. At the latter site KHS has also installed a glass line for soda water which fills 50,000 325-ml bottles an hour. The soda water system operates at room temperature without the need for any cooling. For each line the company had expert KHS service and training staff at their disposal for several months after commissioning.
Decades of a partnership based on trust have cemented the ties between Boon Rawd and KHS. The company is once again receiving highly efficient, energy-saving plant engineering coupled with customer-oriented service. Founded by Phya BhiromBhakdi in the year 1933, Boon Rawd is Thailand’s oldest brewery. Thanks to innovative management and its creative ideas the family business has expanded over the past few decades to become a leading beverage company. Brands such as Singha, Leo, B-ing, Purra, Pun Dee, and Masita enjoy an excellent reputation worldwide. Its subsidiary Singha Corporation is active throughout Thailand with nine bottling plants (for beer, water and soda) and worldwide with customers in over fifty countries.
