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Agr’s Process Pilot Automated Blowmolder Control system provides a technical safeguard as Eckes-Granini shifted production to 100% rPET in May 2021. (Courtesy of Agr International)

Automated Blowmolder Control system

Agr Process Pilot provides “Technical Safeguard” as Eckes-Granini shifts to 100% rPET bottles


The Agr Process Pilot® Automated Blowmolder Control system operating on Line 2 of Eckes-Granini’s bottle-making and filling plant in Fallingbostel, 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.

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.

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