On-the-go drinks rise in Mexico

It claims in Latin America each person drinks an average of 225 litres of cola a year, and Mexico, with a recent growth in consumption of 2%, is one of the largest ‘per capita’ consumers of soft drinks in the world.

Martin Stark, technical and purchasing director, Alpla, said Mexicans are focusing on water and non-carbonated drinks due to growing health concerns about obesity and the need for low-fat, sugar-free products with fewer calories. 

Energy drinks to soar​

Physical activity across the country is growing, meaning demand for energy drinks will soar. 

“Sales of ‘on-the-go’ drinks are expected to increase and Alpla Mexico has a key role to play in this dynamic market, in supplying bottles to beverage producers​,” said Stark.

Due to a growing demand, Alpla, which specializes in blow-molded bottles, has decided to invest in its PET-blowing machinery at its factory in Mexico and bought two Sidel Matrix blowers for Coca-Cola branded products on behalf of its client Coca-Cola Femsa.

Both machines, the SBO 24 Sidel Matrix blow-molder, are based at the Toluca plant of Coca-Cola Femsa, less than one hour from Mexico City. They produce 2,200 bottles per hour per mold.

Challenges in installation and start-up​

One blower is dedicated to 400ml format bottles and the second one to 600ml format bottles.

“The challenge in both cases was to limit the consequences of installation and start-up on production, as the old machines had to be stopped in parallel​,” said Stark.

“The SBO 24 Matrix blowers came in to replace previous generation Sidel blow-molders – one SBO 16, two SBO 18, and one SBO 20 - to produce the full range of Coca-Cola products​.

“The bottle scrap rate is lower than production on the blow-label-fill and the reduced footprint of the machines has increased our storage capacity for preforms​.”

Potential for lightweighting​

Ecoven with a large process window, improved ventilation in the oven, electrical stretching the Sidel Matrix blower, which handles all the different preforms whatever the raw material - virgin or PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled) PET, regardless of whether the preforms have recently been injected or come from storage. 

“The machines show great improvement over the former technology. It allows us to use a wider range of PET materials and great potential for lightweighting. Even if the production of bottles with 50% PCR PET preforms is generally more complex in terms of process, performance of the bottles was right from the outset​,” added Stark.

The base shape, designed by Sidel, improved the bottle resistance to internal pressure and avoided stress cracking.

Performance levels​

“We have also been able to reduce the weight of the 400ml bottle from 20.5g to 15.5g, respecting the specifications of Coca-Cola, which remain unchanged​,” said Stark.

“After tailoring the modular Sidel Matrix blowers for our specific needs, the performance reached the level we were targeting, with an efficiency of up to 98% and an output matching that of the filling line. The availability and the uptime of the machines are at the right level​.”

Other criteria for buying the machines included ease of operation and maintenance for the technicians and changeover flexibility for different beverages.