Paul Stewart (consultant, Leibinger) and Matthiaws Knapp (einkauf, Leibinger).
Eliminating foaming so that you can fill beer (or other carbonated drinks) much faster is now possible with Leibinger’s novel balloon-style filler called Invasa. It was highlighting this on its stand at Brau and is already discussing it with giants of the beverage world such as Coca-Cola.
While a typical sparkling wine filling line, for example, may take seven to eight seconds to fill a bottle, the ‘balloon’ filler takes just one second – a significant benefit for high throughput beverage lines.
“Although carbonated beverages and beer require time for CO2 to settle after filling before they can be capped, the entire filling process including pressure release can be twice as fast using the ‘balloon’ technology,” confirmed Paul Stewart, consultant with Leibinger.
First shown in its early stages two years ago, the perfected Invasa will be delivered to its first commercial installations in the next few weeks.
“The first installations are all breweries, one in Hong Kong, a second in Strasbourg, and a third in Lucerne,” said Stewart, who confirmed that Leibinger specialises in technology dedicated to small and medium sized companies. “We have been speaking to Coca-Cola, which has been looking at the Invasa in its research facilities.”
Coca-Cola does have discreet lines for some smaller beverage lines, and also may require smaller production levels for smaller countries, however, Leibinger is ready to look at developing the technology with partners for larger throughputs if required.
Drawing on a thermoplastic elastomer balloon attached to each filling head that inflates to line the inner walls of the bottle, the Invasa filling system fills the beverage around the balloon, which is caused to deflated by the liquid outside of it. In this way, the technology ensures that no oxygen is present in the bottle and, thanks to the absence of gas within the bottle during filling, eliminates the foaming that usually occurs with carbonated beverages.
According to Leibinger, since the differential pressure created allows for a more rapid flow speed, ‘balloon’ filling can be between five and 10 times faster than a conventional filling process.
Claire Rowan is group technical editor, magazines, FoodBev Media. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
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