It is the brains of a machine: without a control unit your bottling system can neither mold nor fill your containers. When suppliers notify a discontinuation of such components – such as the control unit on our KHS InnoPET Blomax Series III in the current instance – in the worst case production can grind to a halt. In order to avoid this – and unnecessary costs – the Dortmund engineering company is offering an upgrade for its stretch blow molder. Customers such as Slovenian bottler Atlantic Droga Kolinska are thus profiting from KHS’ holistic services and not only increasing their production reliability but also significantly boosting their efficiency. Proactive installation of the KHS ReDiS remote maintenance system in the course of the conversion also helps to further cut process costs.
Customers across the globe value the many years of service given by KHS machines. This is no different when it comes to the third generation of KHS stretch blow molding technology which was already heralded as one of the pioneers on the market back at the turn of the century. Hundreds of these machines are still in successful operation at customer plants all over the world. For its existing clients KHS offers a conversion of the control unit to modern components, a step made necessary by the discontinuation and thus cessation of production of the same by the former supplier. The number of available spare parts will thus decrease as a result. If there is a machine failure, downtimes could last longer and repairs may not always be possible – or when they are, they may take up a vast amount of time and effort. “We therefore urgently advise all users to replace their control unit. Ignoring this could prove expensive,” says Dennis Jacobi, service sales manager and expert for conversions at KHS in Hamburg, Germany.
Control unit upgrade successfully completed
One of the first customers to opt for a machine conversion on one of its two InnoPET Blomax Series III stretch blow molders at its Rogaška Slatina plant in the east of Slovenia is Atlantic Droga Kolinska. Here, premium Donat mineral water is filled into non-returnable PET bottles holding between 0.5 and 1.0 liters that comes from the springs of Rogaška Slatina and is named after the nearby mountain of Donačka Gora. It is valued as a healthy product for its combination of trace elements and good digestive properties. In order to safeguard the continuing production of perfect containers in the future, the control unit on the stretch blow molder – now more than 20 years old – was recently replaced. “Mechanically it’s in a sound condition; it’s the electronics that are showing their age. We want to carry on using our stretch blow molder for a good few years more despite its vintage. The conversion has now greatly reduced the risk of unplanned downtime. We’ve also ensured the reliability of production,” states Matic Javornik, manager of process automation for the Slovenian bottler.
