Current status and development direction of beer packaging production lines

Current status and development direction of beer packaging production lines

I. Related markets

Beer packaging machinery belongs to a type of specialized equipment for a single industry. The main markets for Chinese beer packaging machinery are in developing countries such as Southeast Asia, Africa, and Russia. However, the international market is basically monopolized by German companies such as Krones and KHS.

Ten years ago, China exported one 20,000 bottles/hour beer production line to Cambodia, and multiple 8,000 bottles/hour and 12,000 bottles/hour beer production lines to Vietnam. At that time, due to the insufficient comprehensive strength of domestic beer machinery manufacturers, they did not actively and proactively continue to explore the international market, and for a long time gave up the Southeast Asian market, focusing only on the development of the domestic market. Before 1986, China's mid-to-high-end beer packaging equipment market was basically monopolized by German companies such as H&K, SEN, and Krones, while domestic manufacturers could only produce low-end products—beer filling production lines below 8,000 bottles/hour—and there was a significant technological gap compared with advanced foreign products. In 1986, the China National Light Industry Machinery Corporation of the former Ministry of Light Industry introduced a 20,000 bottles/hour beer production line from Germany's KHS through a combination of technology and trade. In 1993, it introduced a 36,000 bottles/hour beer bottling line with contemporary technology from KHS. Through technology introduction, digestion, and absorption, domestic processing techniques and technology underwent leapfrog development. Since then, the market share of domestically produced beer packaging equipment has steadily increased. Especially in recent years, the domestic equipment market share has grown rapidly in China. A rough estimate shows that domestically produced beer equipment now accounts for about 90% of new purchases by domestic beer producers. Imported equipment is mainly used for some bottle and case inspection equipment, electronic valve fillers for filling draft beer, and a small number of high-speed labellers. Recently, judging from the beer packaging production lines purchased by major beer groups such as Tsingtao Brewery, Yanjing Brewery, China Resources Breweries, Kingway Brewery, Harbin Brewery, and Golden Lion Brewery, almost all are domestically produced equipment except for bottle and case inspection equipment and a few filling machines. Even more representative is that Heineken Asia Pacific Brewery Group, a wholly foreign-owned international brand, also purchased two beer bottling filling production lines (40,000 bottles/hour and 20,000 bottles/hour) manufactured by Guangdong No.2 Light Industry Machinery Factory Co., Ltd. in China for the first time.

II. Related technologies

At present, the production capacity of a single beer bottling line designed in China can only reach 48,000 bottles/hour (640ml). The maximum production capacity of a single beer bottling line that can be produced domestically has reached 40,000 bottles/hour, while Germany has already reached 70,000 bottles/hour, so there is still a large gap. However, from the technical indicators of existing medium- and low-speed complete lines, the domestic technical level is basically close to that of imported equipment. The overall efficiency of domestically produced beer packaging lines can reach 85%–90%, which is close to the level of similar foreign equipment. However, there is still a certain gap in the efficiency of some individual machines compared with imported ones, which can be compensated by increasing the bottle storage capacity of the bottle conveying system and configuring individual machines with slightly larger production capacities as needed.

The cleaning rate of domestically produced bottle washers can reach 99%, which is as good as or even better than imported equipment. This is because domestic bottle washers are designed and produced based on domestic recycled bottle conditions, with caustic soaking time basically over 10 minutes, so there is no problem washing recycled bottles, while foreign bottle washers are designed with a benchmark of about 8 minutes. The filling level accuracy of domestically produced fillers has reached ±4mm, and with special design can reach over 98%. The oxygen pickup can be controlled below 0.04ppm, and the capping qualification rate reaches over 99.9%. These indicators have basically reached the level of imported equipment, indicating that domestic design and processing technology have made considerable progress.

The core technology of the pasteurizer lies in the control of the pasteurization unit (PU) value. Domestic pasteurizers use a fuzzy logic system to automatically control the PU value, and are also equipped with an automatic cold water replenishment cooling device in the high-temperature and holding zones, so that the PU value control accuracy and the maximum increase in PU value during temporary shutdowns have reached the level of similar imported equipment.

III. Related equipment

1. Case packers and decasers

At present, the main types of domestic case packers and decasers are four-link structure and平移式 structure, which are intermittent case packing and unpacking. The single-machine production capacity can currently only reach more than 50,000 bottles per hour. In addition to the above two types, foreign countries also have a rotary continuous case packer/unpacker, whose single-machine production capacity can reach more than twice that of domestic equipment. In addition, in China, to increase the packing/unpacking output of domestic case packers/decasers, the most widely used type is the four-link case packer/decaser, which is characterized by mature technology, simple structure, practicality, and low cost. Recently, some users have started to use平移式 case packers/decasers, which are characterized by separate and adjustable horizontal and vertical movements and have certain advantages for packing cartons.

2. Bottle washers

The main types of domestic bottle washers are: single-end soaking bottle washers and double-end soaking bottle washers.

The main types of foreign bottle washers are: single-end and double-end soaking bottle washers, and a new type of continuous label-removing bottle washer for both plastic and glass bottles.

The new type of continuous label-removing bottle washer for both plastic and glass bottles is still a blank in China. Its biggest feature is that labels are separated from the bottles and can be removed in a short time, greatly reducing the contamination of the caustic solution by labels and overcoming the problem of label fiberization.

At present, single-end type bottle washers still account for the majority in China, characterized by mature technology, strong adaptability, low cost, and energy savings. However, recently more and more users have chosen double-end bottle washers, mainly influenced by foreign trends. In developed countries, due to legal requirements for waste and recyclable material sorting, the waste labels and crushed glass discharged from single-end bottle washers cannot be separated. In contrast, the waste labels discharged from double-end bottle washers do not contain crushed glass, and the labels are pressed dry by a press for recycling. Therefore, the use of double-end bottle washers abroad has gradually become mainstream.

At present, the single-machine production capacity of commonly used domestic bottle washers is all less than 48,000 bottles/hour, which is far behind foreign counterparts. The main influencing factors are:

(1) Transportation issues: The relatively outdated height and width design of tunnels, bridges, and toll stations on highways and railways restricts the transportation of large equipment;

(2) Manufacturing process issues.

3. Fillers

The filler is the most critical machine on the packaging line. At present, there are two types of fillers used domestically: conventional type and sanitary type. The conventional type is used for filling pasteurized beer and is the most common and widely used filler. The sanitary filler has been developed in recent years with the emergence of draft beer. It is characterized by an open structure, automatic cleaning capability, and the ability to avoid secondary contamination of beer during the filling process.

At present, the market for conventional fillers has gradually been occupied by domestically produced equipment, and imported ones are rarely used because the technology is already very close. In terms of sanitary fillers used in draft beer production lines, imported equipment still holds a certain market share. However, with the continuous development and maturity of domestic technology, the number of imported sanitary fillers is declining and being replaced by domestic equipment. The market competition for sanitary fillers is quite fierce and has already reached a white-hot state.

Domestic sanitary fillers have gone through a tortuous development path. At first, they imitated the sanitary electronic valve filler of Germany's KHS, but due to the great difficulty of its key liquid level detection and control system, which was technically difficult to overcome, the filling level accuracy was always unsatisfactory. Guangdong No.2 Light Industry Machinery Factory Co., Ltd. conducted in-depth research on this project, changed its approach, and after continuous efforts, finally developed a new generation of sanitary mechanical valve draft beer filler with independent intellectual property rights and core technology in 2004, and exhibited it at the 2004 China International Beer, Beverage Manufacturing Technology and Equipment Exhibition in Beijing, gaining wide market recognition. At present, 7 units of this product have been sold, and 5 are in operation. Feedback from customers shows that all indicators meet the requirements, especially the measured microbiological indicators, which fully meet the production requirements for draft beer. The success of this project has opened a new low-cost path for draft beer filling in China and is of great significance to the beer industry.

What are the similarities and differences between draft beer mechanical valve fillers and draft beer electronic valve fillers? First, the similarities: the design concepts are the same, adopting an easy-to-clean sanitary open structure design, such as cantilevered bottle-supporting cylinders, integrated bottle-guiding star wheels, easy-to-clean stainless steel bottle-guiding components, inclined operating platforms, open capping heads that can be cleaned from multiple directions, self-lubricating capping systems that prevent oil contamination, easy-to-clean magnetic cap-sorting devices, sanitary suspended transmission systems, valve array systems that can control comprehensive internal cleaning, and external automatic cleaning devices. Second, the differences: the filling valves. Domestic fillers use mechanical valves, characterized by an internal structure that is improved and optimized based on the traditional design, such as changing the valve core to an integrated structure, improving the structure of the siphon comb hood, and improving the process structure of other internal parts, greatly improving the surface finish of internal components and improving the seals. This not only inherits the advantages of traditional valves (simple structure and good stability) but also reduces sanitary dead corners and makes cleaning easier. Imported electronic valves are characterized by: valve opening and closing actions controlled by solenoid valves and executed through multiple pneumatic small pistons, and liquid level control achieved by electronic probe systems controlling the opening of liquid valves. They have the advantages of easy cleaning, high level accuracy, and convenient adjustment of filling volume. However, their control and structure are complex and costly. The internal cleaning CIP process of domestic draft beer fillers refers to the Japanese style, characterized by an effective cleaning time that is long and thorough, generally requiring 3 hours. Imported equipment generally requires 2 hours for cleaning.

In terms of overall machine cost, the one-time purchase cost of an imported draft beer electronic valve filler is three times higher than that of a domestic draft beer mechanical valve filler, and the annual maintenance cost of an imported filler is correspondingly eight times higher than that of a domestic filler. This is because the wearing parts of imported electronic valve fillers are expensive, and the wearing parts inside the filling valves need to be replaced regularly, with great difficulty in localizing parts. In contrast, domestic draft beer mechanical filling valves are relatively simple, with low maintenance costs, only slightly higher than those of conventional fillers.

4. Pasteurizers

At present, the common types of pasteurizers in China are step-by-step type and chain mesh type. Step-by-step pasteurizers have been dominant in the market for several years, but are currently being gradually replaced by chain mesh pasteurizers. The market share of step-by-step pasteurizers has become very small. The manufacturing costs of these two types of pasteurizers are not much different. Since chain mesh pasteurizers are generally not easily damaged after proper adjustment and require little special maintenance, their maintenance workload is much smaller than that of step-by-step types. Therefore, the above trend change is the result of rational choices by users.

In terms of PU value control, domestic equipment has adopted control systems with fuzzy logic operation functions for automatic PU value control, and is also equipped with cold water addition cooling systems in the high-temperature and holding zones, greatly improving PU value control accuracy and significantly reducing the abnormal increase in PU value caused by bottle jams and shutdowns.

IV. Development direction

1. Energy saving

With the increasing tension of energy resources at home and abroad and the continuous reduction of available resources over time, prices of coal, oil, electricity, and water continue to rise. Energy saving is both an important task facing every industry and a direction for future technological development.

Energy saving in production line systems

(1) Beer packaging production lines consume a relatively large amount of water, electricity, and steam. Some production water can be recycled for use as water for pasteurizers and caustic tanks of bottle washers; some domestic manufacturers are already considering this.

(2) The overflow hot water from bottle washers can be used as water for case washers. A few domestic and foreign manufacturers have already adopted this.

(3) Steam condensate from heaters is centrally recovered and returned to the boiler as feed water. This is already widely adopted abroad.

(4) Strengthen the management of recycled bottles and improve their storage conditions, thereby reducing caustic and water consumption in bottle washers.

2. Research and development of energy-saving equipment

In recent years, foreign countries have developed an energy-saving pasteurizer that consumes half the water of ordinary pasteurizers, and it has been promoted abroad. Two domestic manufacturers use this imported pasteurizer with good results. Domestic equipment manufacturers are also researching and developing such equipment. It is believed that with continuous technological progress, more and better energy-saving domestic beer equipment will be developed.

Since last year, most manufacturers have tended to choose 36,000 bottles/hour and 40,000 bottles/hour beer filling production lines. From the market sales situation, sales of 36,000 bottles/hour and 40,000 bottles/hour beer filling lines have exceeded those of 24,000 bottles/hour beer filling lines, and fewer manufacturers purchase 20,000 bottles/hour beer filling lines. This is a rational trend and will continue in this direction in the future. Because China's labor costs continue to rise, and the prices of land and building materials are also increasing. In addition, domestic technology and manufacturing levels are also improving, and the technology of 36,000 bottles/hour and 40,000 bottles/hour beer filling lines has become relatively mature, while the quality of domestic bottles, cases, and other products has also improved correspondingly. Therefore, this choice is inevitable, and the next development targets are 48,000 bottles/hour and 56,000 bottles/hour beer filling lines.

3. Quick changeover

Due to market demand, beer packaging is developing in a diversified direction. The previously common 640ml and 360ml bottle specifications can no longer meet the needs of market competition, and now a single brewery has more than 10 packaging formats. Equipment manufacturers must also adapt to market needs, and a single beer packaging line should simultaneously meet the requirements of multiple packaging specifications. This presents a new challenge: how to complete the changeover of attachments for related packaging equipment in the shortest possible time when changing bottle types and case types, reducing non-production time. This technology is called quick changeover. This technology is regarded as very important abroad and is developing rapidly. In contrast, previously domestic manufacturers did not pay enough attention to this technology, but now they have begun to recognize this and research and development is starting.

4. Humanized design

In addition to the quality of the packaging line or machine itself, another important factor for good operation is the operator. When designing and developing, we should not only consider the machine itself but also provide operators with a comfortable and convenient operating environment. Only then can operators' initiative be fully mobilized to maximize machine efficiency. Research in this area in China lags far behind advanced countries and needs further study and resolution in the future.

Jiangsu Qiyoulong Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., beer packaging production lines, beer production lines, bottle washers, filler-cappers, pasteurizers, case packers, decasers, depalletizers and palletizers, case washers, bottle conveying systems, pressureless conveying systems, case conveying systems.