The five installed lines manufacture caps with a diameter of 28mm (standard 1881) and a weight of about 2g, with per-line output rates of approximately 1,500 pcs/min.
Successful testing of the first production line showed that Made-in-Sacmi compression technology provided the ideal solution in terms of competitiveness and cost-benefit ratios. Vitaqua’s technical staff were apparently so impressed that they confirmed the purchase of a further four manufacturing lines.
“The advantages associated with this technology compared to injection allow us to work at lower extrusion temperatures with significant energy savings,” said Vitaqua R&D manager Reinhold Juelg.
For Vitaqua, that advantage is enhanced by the fact that water cooling flow rate temperature is in the range of 20-25°C, meaning, according to Juelg, that, “The water in the circuit only needs cooling in the summer months”.
Average cap weight is consistent. In the bottling line, since the caps production equipment has gone online, the percentage of bottles with caps incorrectly applied due to dimensional variations has dropped from up to 0.5% to below 0.02%.
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