Packaging Line Placement - Container Cleaning Equipment

Though certain packaging equipment may appear at different places on a packaging line based on the specific needs of the product or products, some equipment will almost always be seen at the same point in a packaging system.  Container cleaning equipment will almost always be used at the beginning of the packaging line and just prior to the filling process.  This is true because one of the main goals of bottle rinsers and bottle washers is to remove contaminants from individual containers before the product becomes part of the equation.

 

Container cleaning equipment may not be the first packaging machine in an automated packaging system, but it will be near the beginning of the line.  Optional packaging equipment, such as loading turntables, unscramblers or indexing loading conveyors may all precede the container cleaning equipment in that they are used to prepare the bottles for introduction to the rinsers and washers.  On packaging systems including a rinsing machine, the rinsing machine is likely to be the first machine encountered once the bottles are lined up on the power conveyor.  

Rinsing machines will use some type of air or liquid to remove contaminants from the inside of containers just before the filling process begins.  Manufacturing bottles, or even simply transporting bottles, can lead to dust and debris inside the bottles.  Running bottles through a liquid filler without using an air rinser or wet rinser can result in product contamination when it mixes with this dust and debris.  Some rinsing machines will simply invert bottles and use air, water or other cleaning solution to rinse the inside of the bottle, allowing the debris to drain into a basin while in the inverted position.  The rinsing machines then return the cleaned bottles to the power conveyor to be shuttled to the liquid filler.  Bottle vacuums are a slightly different type of rinsing machine.  The bottle vacuums do not invert containers over a basin, but instead use nozzles that dive into the bottles.  These nozzles first blast the inside of containers with air to loosen dust, debris and other contaminants from the inside of the container.  Once the blast of air has loosened the debris, the nozzles of this rinsing machine then vacuum up and deposit the debris in an easily removable waste reservoir.

 

The rinsing machines are logically used just before the filling process for logical reasons.  First, extended periods of time between the container cleaning and the product fill would allow the dust and debris an opportunity to collect once again.  While this collection may be negligible in some environments, it can still lead to product contamination and defeats the entire purpose of using a container cleaning machine.  Second, the logical process of packaging is fill, cap, label.  Capping a product before it is filled is obviously not an option.  Using a labeling machine prior to product filling could be done, but this allows the potential for ruined or wasted labels if the bottle is found to have a leak, if there is a product spill, or any number of issues occur on the packaging line.  The safest route is to fill the bottle with product, cap the bottle and then apply labels to the otherwise packaged product, which leaves ideal space for the rinsing machine just before the liquid filler.  

 

Rinsing machines and bottle washers are just one type of packaging machine manufactured by Liquid Packaging Solutions in the Heartland of the USA.  For more information on any of our packaging equipment, contact a representative directly at 1-888-393-3693.