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New filling machine upgrades help beverage manufacturers meet consumer demand

The basis of success for any manufacturer, regardless of industry, is to stay ahead of the competition. In other words, make a product, and do it better and faster than the others—and repeat. Given this, it’s only natural that manufacturers seek the most advanced and efficient tools to help them do more with less.

According to the Annual State of Food Manufacturing Survey​, food and beverage producers say the need to increase sales and release new products, with customer demand following closely behind, are the top priorities driving their business. To meet the demands, manufacturers are making production improvements, including equipment upgrades. In fact, the survey found that manufacturers have reserved 22% of total company budgets for new production, packaging and process control equipment, and 88% of respondents plan to upgrade equipment.

Newamstar is the explorer and founder in China on PET bottle Aseptic cold filling technology, working and researching in the Aseptic filing technology field for decades. The Aseptic technology is continuously innovated and improved, as well the VHP and HPV system is developed exclusively by Newamstar on packaging material sterilization topic. A series of the sterilization intensity theoretical figures are collected through the cooperation with Jiangnan University, verifying the microorganism in the laboratory. And such technology has been successfully applied on the non-ozone mineral water Combi production line, Aseptic cold filling and cold-chain filling production line etc. The low concentration (1-3mg/L), low temperature (20-50℃) gaseous H202, achieving the sterilization level ≥5log in a short time.

  • Preform dry sterilization technology

The dry gas spray device is installed before the preform entering the heat oven, gaseous H2O2 is evenly sprayed to the internal surface of preform. The H202 will be activated by the heating process in the heat oven and the sterilization effect will be intensified, result in the decrease of bacteria number in the preform. The H202 will be evaporated by decomposition instantaneously by the means of high temperature heating after the preform is sterilized by H2O2. The whole technical process design is simple while reliable. The technology not only reduces the risk of H202 residual inside the preform, but also realize the high hygienic safety level target. Newamstar brings the H202 dry sterilization technology into mineral bottled water Combi system, which makes the product more safe and reliable and it is verified at customer’s factory and approved by customers.

  • Cap dry sterilization technology

The traditional cap sterilization technical process normally use the wet sterilization type that uses the disinfectant to soak the cap for certain time. The advantage of such method is the intensity of the sterilization is high, stability and reliability is good while disadvantage is that it requests large amount of the recycling disinfectant to be used, the sterile water is necessary to rinsing the cap and wash away the residual disinfectant in the cap, so the high consumption of the water is the most disadvantage for wet sterilization. Newamstar has released the combined scenarios by using UV middle pressure sterilization and H202 dry sterilization after the research and analysis. The sterilization scenario is divided into 2 steps due to the internal special structure of the cap. The first step is to sterilize the cap by using the middle pressure UV lamp, which de-activates the bacteria, virus, spores and other pathogenic bacteria, the effect of the sterilization can reach ≥3log. Then the 2nd step is to use the spraying gaseous H202 to sterilize the cap, which takes the sterilization effect to ≥5log. In such way, only few of the disinfectant is used and without the consumption of water, however, the through sterilization can be achieved. For the Aseptic production line with 36000BPH, more than 5000l/h water can be saved only in the cap treatment stage.

  • Empty bottle dry sterilization technology

Currently, the lactobacillus milk stored in low temperature is more and more popular for consumers, not only because of the high nutrition of the product itself but also to some extent it can improve the physiological function of the body. Then, how to catch this product market share by mean s of extending the shelf life of the product in the base that the product quality is guaranteed. Newamstar solved such issue for customer in the real production in the means of settling the technical challenge one by one concerning the packaging material sterilization. The empty bottle dry sterilization and sterile hot wind decomposition technology is well applied on the cold chain filling production, and it makes it a possible that the packaging material can be thoroughly sterilized on the one hand, on the other hand the quality and safety of the lactobacillus beverage and high&kow acid beverage in low temperature can be adequately assured. The gaseous H202 will be sprayed into the bottle evenly, the log level of the sterilization can be realized after the microorganism is inactive through the condensing procedure. Afterwards, the sterile hot wind system decomposes the H202 in a short time to ensure that no any residuals will pass to the filling procedure. The sterilization can be used for all kinds bottle shape (square bottle, round bottle), bottle size (0.2-1.5L). By using such sterilization method, for one 36000BPH filling production line, 5000-10000L/H rinsing water can be saved while the sterilization effect can be guaranteed.

  • Isolated cabinet dry sterilization technology

Isolated cabinet is one of the key parts in the Aseptic production line, so the sterilization of this part will matter for the whole process. The isolated cabinet PAA spray fumigation sterilization technology is researched and developed by Newamstar, to guarantee the product safety more efficiently. The liquid H2O2 is vaporized instantly by the hygienic steam, and the steam with 1000-1500ppm is sprayed into the cabinet, the internal sterilization can be done in short time. In the real production, the Aseptic filler isolated cabinet is verified with respect to all regulations and rules.

Nowadays, the dry sterilization technology developed by Newamstar is already widely used in all kinds of the system and production lines, and well accepted by the customer in market. The technology can make the product safe and at the same time the energy consumption will be reduced, which can make considerable economic benefits.

Beverage Industry

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