The Agr Process Pilot Automated Blowmolder Control system operating on Eckes-Granini’s bottle-making and filling plant in Germany, is providing an extra layer of process management and quality assurance for the premium drinks maker.

Responding to the corporate mandate to bottle its popular hohes C juices exclusively in 100% recycled plastic, Fallingbostel Production Manager Tim Pageler recognized that the sustainability directive demanded exacting control of the bottle blowing process.

While he was confident in the plant’s ability to make the transition from 25% rPET to 100% rPET, he was looking for “a technical safeguard to keep the process stable and to ensure that production” was robust.

The Agr Process Pilot Automated Blowmolder Control system operates Eckes-Granini’s bottle-making and filling plant.

Pageler found that Process Pilot fit the bill. Stability in environmental conditions and in materials is always a big concern in blowmolding, even more so due to irregularities inherent in rPET as an amalgam of plastics from different sources.

The more recycled resin there is in a preform, the harder it is for the blowmolder to achieve the material distribution targets required for well-performing bottles. Not being able to manage the variability in rPET results in non-conforming bottles and creates downstream problems like jams in the labeler due to skewing.

The granular control of the Process Pilot system, powered by sophisticated algorithms, counteracts all these variables, automatically triggering corresponding changes in process settings to adjust for irregularities.

Eckes-Granini’s 100% rPET bottle.

For Pageler, these capabilities introduce an extra layer of protection to buffer any fluctuations in quality that can occur, not just with preforms from different suppliers but within individual batches from the same vendor as well.

Specifically, Eckes-Granini installed Process Pilot inside a KHS Series IV reheat stretch blowmolder producing roughly 30,000 containers per hour. The juice maker had configured the line as a block, integrating blowing, the application of a protective Plasmax interior coating, and the filling operation in one unit.

In addition to the 1L hohes C, the line would produce four other SKUs: 1L Die Limo, 1.5L hohes C Naturell, 0.75L Bio, and 1L Trinkgenuss Granini. Design features like a long neck, dimples, or embossing gives each juice bottle a distinctive appearance, but all are 100% rPET.

The Agr Process Pilot Automated Blowmolder Control system operating on Eckes-Granini’s bottle-making and filling plant in Germany, is providing an extra layer of process management and quality assurance for the premium drinks maker.

Responding to the corporate mandate to bottle its popular hohes C juices exclusively in 100% recycled plastic, Fallingbostel Production Manager Tim Pageler recognized that the sustainability directive demanded exacting control of the bottle blowing process.

While he was confident in the plant’s ability to make the transition from 25% rPET to 100% rPET, he was looking for “a technical safeguard to keep the process stable and to ensure that production” was robust.

The Agr Process Pilot Automated Blowmolder Control system operates Eckes-Granini’s bottle-making and filling plant.

Pageler found that Process Pilot fit the bill. Stability in environmental conditions and in materials is always a big concern in blowmolding, even more so due to irregularities inherent in rPET as an amalgam of plastics from different sources.

The more recycled resin there is in a preform, the harder it is for the blowmolder to achieve the material distribution targets required for well-performing bottles. Not being able to manage the variability in rPET results in non-conforming bottles and creates downstream problems like jams in the labeler due to skewing.

The granular control of the Process Pilot system, powered by sophisticated algorithms, counteracts all these variables, automatically triggering corresponding changes in process settings to adjust for irregularities.

Eckes-Granini’s 100% rPET bottle.

For Pageler, these capabilities introduce an extra layer of protection to buffer any fluctuations in quality that can occur, not just with preforms from different suppliers but within individual batches from the same vendor as well.

Specifically, Eckes-Granini installed Process Pilot inside a KHS Series IV reheat stretch blowmolder producing roughly 30,000 containers per hour. The juice maker had configured the line as a block, integrating blowing, the application of a protective Plasmax interior coating, and the filling operation in one unit.

In addition to the 1L hohes C, the line would produce four other SKUs: 1L Die Limo, 1.5L hohes C Naturell, 0.75L Bio, and 1L Trinkgenuss Granini. Design features like a long neck, dimples, or embossing gives each juice bottle a distinctive appearance, but all are 100% rPET.