KHS launches two new aseptic filling machines
The new machines, designed for different shaped bottles, can be used for filling milks, yoghurt drinks, fruit juices or fruit juice drinks.
Talking through the features of the Asbofill ABF 611 and Asbofill ABF 711, KHS emphasized flexibility and safety as key themes.
Regarding flexibility, KHS said one machine can fill PET or HDPE without conversion and specially shaped rectangular or square bottles can be processed easily. The Germany-based beverage machinery specialist said this is thanks to integrated neck handling.
A number of different options are available for the machines to meet different customer requirement.
For example, nitrogen flushing, which is particularly useful for fortified drinks that may be sensitive to oxygen, is a possibility. And a drop of liquid nitrogen can be added to the headspace of filled plastic bottles – this displaces oxygen in bottle head space and can enhance the stability of particularly lightweight bottles.
As for safety, bottles and closures are sterilized in a two-step process that begins with spraying by an H202 aerosol and then drying with hot air.
KHS said a key advantage of the system used with the Asbofill machines is that all surfaces are sprayed evenly to ensure maximum microbiological safety.
In addition, the sterile zones for the linear-, as opposed to carrousel-, shaped filling machines is small. At 1.5 cubic metres for the ABF 611 and 0.9 cubic metres for the ABF 711 KHS claims the sterile areas required are probably the world’s smallest.
The Asbofill ABF 611 fills 0.1 to 0.75-litre plastic bottles and the larger Asbofill ABF 711 is designed for bottles of 0.25 to 2.1 litres.
