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Guzzlers bring new gear to Twin Mountain

When fruit-flavored Guzzlers proved popular, this bottled water marketer moved quickly to install both new bottle-making equipment as well as a new packaging line.

In the station shown above, thermally conditioned injection-molded preforms are being handed off to the portion of the bottle-ma
In the station shown above, thermally conditioned injection-molded preforms are being handed off to the portion of the bottle-ma

For many companies, a successful product launch creates a need for new packaging equipment, and Twin Mountain Spring Water Co. is no exception. When the Nashua, NH, firm introduced a fruit-flavored spring water called Guzzler(TM) two years ago, consumers responded so favorably that a new packaging line was soon on the drawing board.

But more than just packaging equipment was purchased. Also ordered was stretch blow-molding equipment to blow bottles and injection-molding equipment to make preforms of polyethylene terephthalate. Plant manager Kevin Tappa explains the firm's strategy.

"Vertical integration is one of the keys to our success. We are the low-cost supplier in the metro centers on the East Coast that we target. We don't advertise, and our products are very low in price. Vertical integration helps us reach those price points. Even in New Hampshire, where electric costs are the second highest in the nation, we can still make preforms for less than what we can buy them."

The newest PET bottle-making equipment running at Twin Mountain includes a 32-cavity injection-molding system from Husky (Bolton, Ontario, Canada) and two SBO-6/10 stretch blow-molding units from Sidel (Norcross, GA).

"The 32-cavity Husky machine lets us make about 60 percent of the preforms we need," says Tappa. "The beverage business is very seasonal, but the Husky machine practically never stops, which means we can stockpile preforms over the winter months until they're required."

All preforms for the custom-molded Guzzler bottles are produced in-house. The finished bottle weighs 241/2 g.

The second Sidel system was just installed early this year. Also on hand are the two single-stage injection/stretch blow-molding machines that Twin Mountain used for the initial launch of Guzzler. And elsewhere at Twin Mountain, extrusion blow-molding systems crank out high-density PE bottles in several sizes for the firm's various water products.

So deeply ingrained is the vertical integration mindset at Twin Mountain, "We even looked at making our own caps," says Tappa. No cap-molding machines were in evidence, however, on a recent Packaging World visit.

Two phases

What was visible was the new Guzzler packaging line, installed in two phases. Completed in late '96, Phase One consists of a bottle unscrambler, a Model 610 rinser from Bevco (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada), a rotary-style filler/capper from Fogg (Holland, MI), air knives from Sonic Air Systems (Brea, CA), a Trine (Turlock, CA) roll-fed labeler and a refurbished drop packer.

This equipment has been in use at Twin Mountain since the '97 season. It allowed the company to package 20-oz bottles of Guzzler at about 300 bottles/min, which was sufficient for '97 but not good enough for the volume projected for '98. The case packer was the limiting factor, says Tappa, so in Phase Two it was replaced with a PTF-28 tray/case packer from Kisters/Kayat (Edgewater, FL). Since its installation, Twin Mountain packs the 20-oz bottles at 400 bpm.

In addition to increasing the speed of Guzzler's packaging, the PTF-28 allows Twin Mountain to pack water bottles in three new formats: 20-oz PET bottles in 24-count trays and 11.2-oz PET in either 12- or 24-count trays. These new multipacks are a big boost to Twin Mountain's marketing efforts, says Tappa.

"In some markets you have to be able to see the product, and a full-wrap case doesn't allow that," he says. "The trays also provide some cost savings because tray plus film is about 25 percent less costly than a full wraparound case." Wraparound cases are still preferred, however, in some distribution channels because they offer greater protection.

Tappa appreciates the flexibility of the Kisters/Kayat machine, which makes changeovers a breeze. "It's friendly to our operators and our mechanics," he says. "It's simple to change over or to fix because everything is so accessible."

When bottled water is scheduled to run through the Kisters/Kayat machine, conveyor gates are used to divert the water bottles into the multipacker. Some mechanical change parts on the Kisters/Kayat machine have to be physically removed and replaced, but these are designed with quick changeover in mind.

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