Expanding the existing filling line with unscrambler & shrink sleever
18/08/2021

This producer of high-quality fruit fillings and sweet toppings had already been working with our filling line with labelling machine for several years for different bottle and cap size configurations and principles. The first compact bottle unscrambler was installed in 2020 to feed high tube-type bottles to a different existing filling line.

Because of a huge increase in shrink sleeve applications, it was also decided to tackle this section and further expand our filling line. Applying the shrink sleeves to the empty bottles manually was no longer a viable approach.

To further optimise these operations, the decision was made to add a compact bottle unscrambler (identical to the first one) that feeds the empty bottles (five sizes of top-down bottles) at a constant speed of 2200bph.

The sleeve applicator’s S-type infeed conveyor is used simultaneously to receive the empty bottles from the compact unscrambler and feed them directly to the sleeve applicator.

The sleeve applicator applies the sleeves over empty bottles because the majority of products are filled at 95°C+, and this would not be viable after filling and sealing as the sleeves would shrink during application.

After shrinking the wraparound sleeves of these bottles, they progress to the existing PS4 filling and ECO1 capping machines. When single-labelling is being used, the sleever lane is used only for transit, and these bottles are front and back labelled by our full option ET3000 labelling machine.

The machine line consists of:

• S-bend conveyor belt system
• Compact unscrambler type A-1400 with integrated buffer
• Ulisse 4000 type shrink sleeve applicator with worm screw feed for empty bottles