Krones, the German equipment provider, has said that since launching its bottle pockets in 1992 it has produced a record number of ten million.
Krones, which is based in Neutraubling, has been manufacturing the bottle pockets for its bottle washers in-house. During the eleven years of production, the main plant has so far produced ten million pockets, providing the hearts to hundreds of machines.
The combination of a steel carrier with steel-sheet pockets featuring a bottle-friendly plastic nose has proved to be the best material variant. Krones claims that this provides several advantages. These include the fact that the heat (and thus energy) entrainment is lower by a factor of three for steel compared with plastic. This fact in turn helps to ensure that the bottle carriers, despite their sturdy construction, make a significant contribution to the energy savings of the machine as a whole.
Smooth surfaces
During the 11 years of production Krones' Development Department has also cast a critical eye over the pockets' surfaces. Firstly, the total surface area has been reduced, and secondly it's been made smoother, with maximised homogeneity for the connection between the sheet-metal body and the plastic nose. This design has reduced to a minimum the liquid entrainment of water and caustic during the washing process.
Quality control of the finished pockets is a crucial factor. The fully automated high-precision in-house manufacturing process includes 100 percent checking of dimensional accuracy.
The importance of accurate machining for the pockets is evidenced by the amount of bottle pockets incorporated in a single washer. One of the biggest machines built so far was installed last year by the Polar Brewery in Venezuela. The equipment meant that 73,000 bottle pockets were fitted - each one to a maximised standard of quality.