How is the water filling market currently faring?
Andrea Lupi: We’re finding that it’s in a stable position. Last year, we noticed growth in North America and China in single-serve bottles. Other markets such as Central and South America are more focused on large capacity containers, ranging from 5-10 litres.
Werner Amsler: Our main market is North America, but we’re now seeing increased demand from Africa, India, Mexico and Central America. In some cases, projects are being put on hold or downsized to smaller capacity because of the uncertain economy. Companies that are now molding their own containers are considering purchasing smaller cavity machines to accommodate smaller production runs and reduce new tooling costs.
Briefly describe the filling services that you offer the bottled water industry.
Lupi: We provide filling machines to cover all of the needs of this particular market. In terms of technology, we have mechanical options for customers who prefer simplicity and easy maintenance, as well as electronic contact-less machinery for those who favour hygiene and clean conditioning.
Amsler: We provide full turnkey plant design and set-up, from blow molders through to final packaging equipment. Our equipment offerings include PET stretch blow molders with outputs from 70 to 36,000 bottles per hour, bottle inspection equipment, rotary Monobloc rinser filler cappers for glass and plastic, PS, roll-fed and shrink-sleeve labelling equipment, and packaging systems such as shrink bundlers, tray formers, box formers and palletisers. For the 5-gallon market, we provide five-stage fillers, rack filling equipment and racking for storing containers.
Historically, Amsler’s main activity has been in two-stage PET blow molding equipment. We’ve been expanding into the liquid filling equipment based on demand from our blow molding machine customers.
What are your customers’ main concerns when it comes to filling?
Lupi: For the water market, bottle lightweighting is the main parameter, together with hygiene and sustainability, particularly in more developed markets.
Amsler: Any measures that reduce the final costs are important to our customers. Amsler blow molders are compatible with both lightweight and biodegradable containers. Container rigidity is often increased after filling by injecting nitrogen. Some customers are already using Amsler blow molders to make biodegradable containers.
How does your machinery address sustainability issues?
Lupi: We’ve made various efforts to reduce the energy required to run our machines and were the first company to introduce the Combi concept to avoid air conveying systems and bottle rinsers, which cuts water and electricity consumption. We’re also working on reducing the quantity of chemicals needed to clean the fillers. We have therefore achieved a double result, as there’s less waste to be purified and less energy required for warming the product for sanitisation.
Amsler: Amsler blow molders are all electric and the fillers have a small footprint and are energy efficient. Also, hydraulics are not used, thereby reducing energy consumption and costs.
What is your bestselling filling machinery, and why do you think it’s so popular?
Lupi: Our bestseller is the mechanical filler. The reason is quite simple: in emerging markets, where we have the most demand, the primary need is to balance Capex, hygiene, operational simplicity and filling performances. Our machine provides a very good solution to all of these demands.
Amsler: To date, our most popular Monobloc filler for water is the 32/32/10 – 32 rinsing, 32 filling and 10 capping heads – with an output of 15,000 bottles per hour. This machine represents a cost-effective way to upgrade lines from inline to higher output monoblock systems. The same output would require three times as much space for inline fillers.
Can you pinpoint any trends that will influence the filling market in the future?
Lupi: We believe that in the water market, the future goals will be bottle lightweighting and TCO in general; operational reliability; sustainability; and hygiene.
Amsler: Strategically placed blow molding and filling operations to reduce shipping costs. Making and filling the bottles in the same geographical location as they’re being sold reduces transportation costs and the overall carbon footprint. Some customers are now moving towards lighter weight bottles to reduce their bottle cost and also their carbon footprint. Even the smaller filling companies are starting to make their own containers to reduce transportation and raw material costs, thereby reducing their overall product cost. In some cases, the smaller filling companies will produce bottles for their local markets.
Andrea Lupi is combi & water fillers product manager of Sidel Group and Werner Amsler is president of W Amsler Equipment.
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