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Mott's takes a new tack in aseptic juice

A $26 million bottling line in Aspers, PA, represents Mott’s first aseptic filling of PET bottles without the need for clean-room conditions.

Inside the net-weight filling chamber, bottles move from a rotary infeed to the 72-nozzle rotary filler, where the standard devi
Inside the net-weight filling chamber, bottles move from a rotary infeed to the 72-nozzle rotary filler, where the standard devi

As a company we’re deeply committed to continuous improvement, so we’re always looking for the best technology out there if we think it will give us an edge in the marketplace. That’s why we evaluated a number of aseptic systems before we selected this one.”

That’s how Mott’s vice president of engineering Mark McAndrew explains the Aspers, PA, installation of what may be North America’s most advanced aseptic filling system for plastic bottles (for a look at how secondary packaging is handled on the line, see next month’s issue). Supplied by Japan’s Shibuya Kogyo, represented in the United States by Shibuya International (Modesto, CA), the new aseptic system is hardly Mott’s first. A division of Stamford, CT-based Cadbury Schweppes, Mott’s has been converting from hot-fill glass to aseptic PET containers since 1993. But this is the first time Mott’s opted for something other than a clean-room system.

“Throughout our ’90s conversion to aseptic PET, we stuck with clean-room technology,” says McAndrew. “With that approach, operators have to gown up and go through a thorough sanitation process to minimize the microbial load they might otherwise bring in. With the closed system in Aspers, only the bottle path is sterile. The operators remain outside and access the equipment through glove ports. It addresses the most fundamental fact about aseptic packaging, which is that humans introduce more bacteria into the process than anything else. By separating them from the rinsing/filling/capping operations, as we do here, we’re a step ahead of the game.”

There are other benefits to a filling system that doesn’t require garbed operators in a clean room, says McAndrew. The cost of the gowns, masks, gloves, and foot-coverings is eliminated. And typically there’s more uptime, he adds. “The bigger the space you’re trying to keep under aseptic conditions, the more time it takes,” he says. When small enclosed chambers are involved, cleaning is done and asepsis restored quickly so production can resume.

Apple juice, Clamato, and Hawaiian Punch are all bottled on the new line, which has been in production since August 2002. With its reduced juice content and its inclusion of preservatives, Hawaiian Punch technically doesn’t need to be aseptically filled to be shelf stable. But for now, Mott’s runs everything in full aseptic mode. In the future, whenever Hawaiian Punch is being packaged, the firm may elect to turn off the hydrogen peroxide spray that sterilizes bottles prior to filling.

Four bottle sizes are run on the Shibuya filler: 32-oz, 64-oz, 86-oz, and 128-oz. (1-gal). The largest runs at speeds to 220/min. All four are blown in-house on a new SBO-16 Series 2 system from Sidel (Norcross, GA); preforms are bought from a commercial injection molder. According to McAndrew, the choice of Sidel equipment for this line was based on past experience.

“On an earlier SBO-16 installed for 1-gal PET bottles of Hawaiian Punch, we made some modifications jointly with Sidel that helped us blow such a big bottle more efficiently,” says McAndrew. “Those same concepts were applied to this project.”

The blow molder sits in a room adjacent to the filler and provides bottles on an in-line blow/fill basis. That means if bottle-making goes down, so does bottle-filling. But that doesn’t bother Aspers plant manager Tom Leedy. “We’ve found the Sidel equipment to be very reliable,” he says.

And what if the downstream filler stops? “Having sufficient accumulation track helps,” says Leedy. “The blow molder holds 300 preforms at a time, so if the filler stops, we stop sending preforms into the Sidel, blow all 300 of the preforms that are already in, and then accumulate all 300 of those bottles on our overhead air-conveying system until the filler is ready to go.”

Provided by NTS (Tyrone, GA), the air conveying system is another departure for Mott’s. PET lines elsewhere in the Mott’s system rely on tabletop conveyors to bring bottles from the blow molder to the filler. Leedy says he’s pleased with the way air conveying has worked so far.

Infrequent size changes

Like any blow-fill operation, this one is managed so that bottle size changes occur as infrequently as possible.

“Nominally, we run around the clock four days a week,” says McAndrew. “And we may not change bottle size for that whole week. We can change flavors three times a day. But when you change bottle sizes, you have to change all the blow molds. Naturally, that takes awhile. It makes sense to do it during those three days we’re not scheduled to run.”

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