By the end of 2017, around 15 Combox units will have been installed in Europe, North America, South America and Asia.
E-beam & βluStream
The aseptic version provides opportunities for applications using pH neutral and acidic products with volumes of up to 12,000 PET bottles per hour for the 1-litre format and up to 18,000 PET bottles per hour for the smaller 250ml formats.
Serac is now planning to launch the Aseptic Combox where container decontamination is carried out by e-beam, using it latest sterilization module βluStream.
Fabienne Cheriaux-Huet, marketing manager, Dairy, Food and Beverages, Serac, told DairyReporter, bottles are playing a greater role in the long conservation products market, particularly in small and medium size formats (white, flavored or supplemented milks, vegetable milks, baby milks, nutritional drinks, fruit juices).
“With the Combox Aseptic no cold chain is needed for a longer shelf life,” he said.
“The system comes with an aseptic filler (Serac Aseptic System) instead of an H2F (Highly hygienic filler) for chilled drinks and typical shelf stable drinks include: UHT white and flavored/supplemented milks, dairy alternative drinks, juices and diet beverages.”
Medium work-rate lines
With the Aseptic Combox Serac believes the technology opens up new market opportuities for manufacturers interested in producing packaging for beverages in small bottles, outside the cold chain, such as on-the-go consumption (at school, during sport or in the office) with re-closable and easy-to-hold bottles.
“The aseptic filling market presently only offers a limited choice of integrated filling lines: on the one hand for cardboard, and on the other hand for bottles with high work-rate blowing-filling-capping lines,” added Cheriaux-Huet.
“With the Aseptic Combox, Serac now offers a single-unit, blowing-filling solution for medium work-rate lines.”
The Aseptic Combox incorporates the SAS 5 filling machine for sensitive products available on the market in a version where the containers (bottles & caps) are sterilized as standard with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).
Serac has combined its PET linear blower (SBL) with its rotary weight filling machine in a single unit (under the trade name Combox).