Overheads for materials and the price of energy are among the biggest cost drivers in production. PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH thus charged KHS with the modernization of their Punica PET bottle filling line at their site in Hamburg, Germany. Systems supplier and specialist for market and production-optimized PET packaging KHS has yielded much higher levels of energy efficiency by specifically optimizing the heater box geometry and installing the AirbackPlus system on the PET stretch blow molder.
When several hundred thousand PET bottles are manufactured and filled per day, a lot of electrical energy is used. For PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH electricity consumption is a relevant factor in its operating costs – a factor the company wished to minimize. Together, PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH and KHS therefore analyzed the line's energy-saving potential. As a result, KHS first modernized the blow air infeed on the KHS InnoPET stretch blow molder from 2008 (a Blomax Series III Compact) in operation at the plant; with the help of the modern KHS AirbackPlus system up to 35% of the blow air is now recycled, which has a positive effect on the process' energy consumption. The next step involved KHS modernizing the geometry of the line's heater box in the fall of 2014.
The savings from this second optimization measure are primarily achieved by the use of modern ceramic materials in the preform heater boxes. The reflective properties of the high-tech ceramic elements greatly improve the energy distribution in the heater box. The tunnel in the heater box has also been made smaller so that less energy is needed for heating; energy can now be optimally deployed when conditioning preforms in the heating process. Here, a more efficient unit comprising a reflector and infrared emitter prevents the sensitive bottle thread area being unnecessarily heated. The amount of cooling of this area can then be reduced, thus saving more energy. These new technical features generate an energy saving of up to 30%.
"At PepsiCo Deutschland we're always trying to save energy to cut costs and protect the environment. We can check the heating profile of the modernized system on an energy monitor, allowing us to measure and document all significant savings. KHS converted our line quickly and competently without affecting system operation," smiles Jens Hadler, project engineer at PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH.
Heater boxes are converted in a maximum of one to two days. KHS process engineers make the fine and final adjustments during the startup phase so that disruption to production is kept very short.
"Through the amount of energy saved, investing in a modernization of the durable InnoPET Blomax Series III pays off for customers after one to three years depending on the line's capacity utilization and the price of electricity," explains Dirk Teschner, project manager at KHS Corpoplast. "We can retrofit any of our stretch blow molders in the InnoPET Blomax Series III quickly and easily with cutting-edge preform heating technology."
For many companies, energy-optimized PET stretch blow molders are an excellent way of reducing production costs. Teschner estimates that "After this successful conversion project at PepsiCo last year we're expecting orders from other customers, too, for the upgrade of about 50 more lines in 2015."
Photo KHS:
Optimized heater box on the InnoPET Blomax Series III.
