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U.S. technology upgrades Australian water bottler

A 66% increase in productivity and a threefold boost in output accompany the installation of automated workplace water-bottle filling and handling.

The first robotic loader (top right) for workplace water bottles was installed at Neverfail's Thornleigh plant.
The first robotic loader (top right) for workplace water bottles was installed at Neverfail's Thornleigh plant.

Harry Hilliam, an Australian entrepreneur, began Neverfail Bottled Water Co. of Sydney after a trip to the United States in 1987 when he observed the growth of the bottled water business. The North American inspiration continued when Bruce Taylor joined the company in ?5 after experience with Vancouver, BC-based Canadian Springs, now a part of Sparkling Springs Water Group.

Hilliam began his company by focusing on water coolers for the workplace, then well established in America, but new to Australia. He began to bottle water from a spring on family-owned property near Sydney. Today, Neverfail operates five bottling plants, each near one of Australia’s largest cities. And all plants employ PortaPlant bottle clean/fill/cap lines from CapSnap Water Group, part of Portola Packaging (San Jose, CA).

Taylor, national plant operations manager at Neverfail, developed a relationship with CapSnap while working for Canadian Springs. “When I had the opportunity to replace three of Neverfail’s old bottling machines, I welcomed the chance to take this productivity step.?The largest PortaPlant installation in the Neverfail network was placed two years ago at Thornleigh, just outside Sydney.

The PortaPlant 2100 at Thornleigh automatically loads eight of the company’s 4- and 5-gal bottles per cycle into the washer. PLCs control the continuous indexing of 144 bottles through 18 consecutive steps in the cleaning process. A 10-valve side-shift filler can fill bottles in as little as 7 sec. Overflow water is recovered via CapSnap’s proprietary contamination-proof recovery system. The cap feeder includes a special lubricator system that sprays ozonated water into the caps. This not only helps in seating the caps, but it also sterilizes them prior to application, according to Taylor.

“We went from 700 to 2100 bottles per hour almost overnight,?says Darrell Hobby, production manager at Thornleigh. “This system allowed us to go from two shifts to one, and the payback will be less than three years.?

This equipment is approved by both the Intl. Bottled Water Assn. and the National Sanitation Foundation. That was also important to Neverfail. “We’re in the process of becoming HACCP-certified [hazard analysis critical control points], and equipment like this makes that easier,?says Hobby.

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