Technical transformation of beer filling with PET bottle

Beer production is regarded as a mature and new technology, and the industry is constantly pursuing various new technologies and new packaging forms.

From the ups and downs of bottled fresh beer, the great success of the first Pearl River draft beer, to the sensation of Kingway's green beer without formaldehyde, all of these reflect the changes of beer market and the progress of technology.

Now, a possible beer packaging revolution is brewing, and related issues have been put on the table of beer manufacturers' decision makers. This is how to use PET bottle to package beer and how to use the existing packaging line to produce PET bottle beer.

With regard to the PET bottle technology used for filling beer, Sidel company is the representative of foreign countries, while Zhuhai Zhongfu Industry Co., Ltd., the industry leader of China's pet bottle manufacturing, takes the lead. Now it seems that how to use the existing production line for necessary technical transformation to achieve the purpose of small batch production of PET bottle beer has become the focus of the industry.

At present, most breweries in China generally adopt the short tube technology for beer filling, and the filling cutting is mainly the VVF valve for primary vacuum pumping and the SVF valve for secondary vacuum pumping. The following describes the practice and successful experience of technical transformation for this type of filling machine.

1、 Transformation of each bottle delivery mechanism:

One of the characteristics of PET bottled beer is the variety of bottle types. At present, the industry mainly includes 330ml for sports and entertainment places, 1600ml for families and party places. In any case, the screw, starwheel and guide plate must be changed according to the different bottle types to meet the needs of bottle conveying.

2、 Transformation of filling part

In order to minimize the amount of oxygen added in the filling process, it is necessary to reduce the contact frequency between beer and air. It is important to reduce the air content in the bottle when filling. There are two methods: one is vacuumizing, the air in the bottle is drawn out and the wine is poured. However, because PET bottle wall is thin and deformed when vacuum degree is large, it will produce the phenomenon of bottle wall delamination. After testing, when vacuum degree is - 0.03mpa, it is no problem. In this way, vacuum pumping can be carried out to reduce the air content in the bottle. The primary or secondary vacuum of the original machine can be changed to three times of vacuumizing, which can extract nearly 90% of the air.

If the filling pressure is 0.2MPa, the CO2 in the wine tank is pure. After the first vacuumizing, there is about 70% air left in the bottle. At this time, fill the bottle with CO2 to reach 0.2MPa, and then vacuumize again. The remaining air content in the bottle is 24.5%, and then fill the bottle with CO2 to reach 0.2MPa, and the remaining air content after vacuumizing is 8.6%. Due to the impure CO2 and other factors, it is possible to extract nearly 90% of the air. If the filling pressure can be higher, the remaining air will be lower.

Method 2: replace the bottle with CO2, that is, fill the bottle with CO2, at the same time, when the vacuum valve is opened or the pressure is reduced to normal pressure, 50% of the air will be released to the outside of the bottle together with CO2, and then inflate and depressurize again, and 25% of the air will be released. In this way, after a period of continuous inflation and pressure relief, most of the air can be replaced by CO2, so as to reduce the amount of oxygen added in the filling process.

3、 Modification of gland part

1. It is estimated that when the crown cover is capped, the pressure on the bottle is about 160kg, and the material hardness of the glass bottle is large, and the cylinder shape structure can bear the pressure; however, the material of the PET bottle body is soft, the wall is thin, and the rigidity is not enough, so the bottle body of this type of bottle is difficult to bear such high pressure, especially when the bottle body is not vertical, once the bottle body is stressed, it will deform The phenomenon can not achieve good capping effect, but also affect the appearance of the bottle body. Therefore, in the transformation, the bottleneck fork should be added to the gland, and the stressed part with higher hardness of the bottleneck should be supported by the bottleneck fork, so the star wheel of the capper should be changed to the star wheel with fork bottleneck, and the bottle fork should be used to hold the bottle. This scheme can make pet bottles locate accurately along the circumference and vertical direction of the capper, and ensure the good quality of the capper. At the same time, according to the experience of many tests, the gland die also needs to be replaced with a smaller size than the glass bottle to ensure the gland quality. At the same time, we need to change: cancel or replace the original cap getter (cap holder), replace the original gland punch (replace with magnetic punch), replace the gland die, etc.

2. If cover screwing is adopted, the cover screwing machine shall be installed after the cover lifting machine, and the bubble stimulating device shall be added before the cover screwing to reduce the bottleneck air.