Bottle and can dryers save money and enhance quality

Financial savings combined with ensured consistent and accurate labelling were the chief drivers behind the Trk Tuborg* filling operation in Izmir, Turkey, installing new can and bottle drying systems. The drying systems were retrofitted to replace compressed air jets and heated tunnels, and are reported to be achieving significant savings while also helping to avoid the problem of label slippage resulting from inefficiently dried bottles.

The can and bottle drying machines are from Air Control Industries (ACI) and were supplied by the company's Turkish distributor, Yk. Mh. Nihat Kagnici, Sanayi Msavirligi ve Mmessilligi. The principal reason for the substantial cost savings is the fact the ACI units are all blower-powered, which is a more cost-effective and cleaner way of delivering air for drying bottles and cans.

Prior to opting for the ACI systems, packaging engineers Arda Sengz and Mehmet Kaynak at the Trk Tuborg plant investigated a number of different suppliers. However, a combination of good references from existing customers, competitive pricing and the easy self-installation and running maintenance persuaded them that ACI offered the best product for the company's needs. Also, with a local distributor they were confident of professional back-up if required.

Drying systems

Five ACI drying systems are installed, three of which are fully enclosed. Two of the fully enclosed units are installed on canning lines and incorporate ACI's purpose-engineered CanTunnels with Airknives, while the third is employed for bottle drying and is equipped with ACI's JetPlate system plus a pair of Airknives. The open units are EL (blower at Eye Level) packages and are CanTunnel systems.

The CanTunnel systems are installed in pairs, with dryers located before and after can twisters that invert cans so that both the top and bottom are dried. Throughput for each of the two parallel lines is 40,000 cans/hr (either 33 or 50cl).

The bottle drying line has a capacity of 60,000 bottles/hr and the ACI dryer must cope with up to 14 different shapes and sizes of bottle, drying neck, cap and bottle in one pass.

Arda Sengz comments: "The ACI drying systems are working very well and the support has been excellent, both from ACI and Nihat Kagnici. What is more, we are saving money. The compressed air systems and heating tunnel were much more expensive to run and maintain, so we expect a rapid payback on our investment."

* Trk Tuborg is part of the CBC Group - Carlsberg's partner in Israel, Romania and Albania. It produces Carlsberg, Skol and a number of Tuborg brands on licence.