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J-I-T decoration cures logistic challenges

A unique in-plant bottle decorating method at Voss of Norway solves procurement and inventory challenges while reducing breakage by 10%.

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It’s not easy to get to the town of Iveland in Norway, which is 30 miles north of the southern port of Kristiansand. But that’s where Oslo-based Voss of Norway’s bottling plant is located, near the source of its ultrapure water. And it’s where the company’s heavy, cylindrical glass bottles end up after traveling a circuitous international path that begins in Ireland where they are produced.

Blown in 375- and 750-mL sizes that weigh 390 and 540g respectively, the bottles were trucked to Ireland’s west coast and shipped to coastal England from where they were trucked inland for decoration by applied ceramic labeling. Once decorated, the bottles were returned to England’s west coast and sent aboard ship destined for Norway’s southern coast and then on to the plant.

It’s easy to imagine the steep costs in transportation Voss incurred, not to mention the opportunities for breakage along the way.

By adopting Envirogluv screen printing technology from RevTech (Edison, NJ) in its plant, Voss was able to get itself out of logistics and inventory hot water (see Feb. ’01, p. 10, or packworld/go/voss). Voss eliminated the decorating trips across England and was able to move into a just-in-time mode for bottling production. Voss is the first company to use the technology outside of Revlon, where it was developed to decorate glass bottles of nail polish. RevTech provides the UV-curable polymer inks. Equipped with special UV lamps, the two-color screen printing press used by Voss is supplied by Rosario Productie BV (Dongen, The Netherlands) and became operational in summer 2000.

Each transportation step had increased the chance for breakage of the heavy, expensive bottles, according to Oystein Kjaereng, Voss vice president of sales and logistics. “Almost every bottle that breaks is broken during handling, so reducing handling reduces breakage,” he explains. With the change, bottle breakage has been reduced by 10%, he reports. Voss is testing a bottle that’s lighter in weight by 25%, further cutting transportation costs.

Ironically, the bottled water is exported back to England, and also to the U.S. where the product in still and carbonated versions sells for $6 and $10, respectively. By inventorying unprinted bottles, the company can fill either size in still or carbonated versions. “With the new technology, we can now print bottles as we need,” he notes, a capability that also opens up marketing opportunities with private label applications.

Although the decorating and other equipment is capable of higher speeds, the line speed of 66 bottles/min is set by depalletizing rates. Currently, Voss operates its automatic depalletizer as a semi-automatic unit that requires an operator to push buttons to control the machine’s motions.

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