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PET bottles and aseptic filling

A new era has dawned at Jus de Fruits d’Alsace (JFA), a French producer of fruit and vegetable juices. As Laurent Olivier explains, the company has entered the PET bottle market.

JFA was founded back in 1956, originally as a marketing initiative for regional apple-growers in the north east of France. Over the decades, the company then changed hands internationally several times, until the French family firm Laiterie de Saint-Denis-de-l’Hôtel (LSDH) integrated JFA in its group of companies in 2008.

Since then, around 40 million euros have been channelled into the facility in the Alsatian village of Sarre-Union. One major focus was the installation of a high-bay warehouse, supplied by Krones in 2012 complete with the building that houses it, which provides space for 35,000 pallets.

The second major investment was into a new syrup kitchen, with the third modernisation step, finally, taken in April 2015 and covering a new aseptic line from Krones for filling PET containers.

Up until then, JFA had concentrated its filling operations on soft packages. On 15 cartoning lines, the company produced around four fifths of its output, with a non-returnable-glass line supplementing the production kit. So the mix up till then was 80 per cent carton, 20 per cent glass.

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“The aim here was to optimise the production operation logistically,” said former factory manager Daniel Eva (pictured right). “JFA’s plant is situated in the vicinity of the German border and the Benelux countries, a fact that offers us good opportunities for the future. Its geographical location predestines it for expansion north- and eastwards.”

Two thirds of JFA’s output are dealer’s brands for the major players on the French retail market, and about 20 per cent are well-known fruit juice brands that the company produces under license. The rest consists of contract-filling and a few brands of its own, like the LSDH brand Cidoux.

With the new aseptic line for PET containers, a second major investment target was achieved.

“We can now optimise the container mix for our key accounts. Because we have an option for providing products in soft packages, glass and in PET in a single truck consignment,” explained Jérôme Buhler (above left), Eva’s successor.

“The third goal was to be able in future to fill not only dealer’s brands but branded products as well into PET, thus boosting the latter’s acceptance among consumers,” added Eva.

Simply irresistible

LSDH decide the choice was between aseptic or cold chain.

“Hotfill has never been a viable alternative for us,” emphasised Eva. “Aseptic filling is quite simply more gentle on the products. When we were considering our investment, we knew already that Krones was at that time developing the new process of a 100-per-cent-aseptic block.

“The Contiform AseptBloc system premiered at the Drinktec 2013 ultimately proved persuasive for us, not least in comparison to other vendors. For me personally, when it came down to it the aseptic process from Krones was more important than the price.”

And there was another plus. With the newly developed valve, the filler is able to bottle both still and carbonated beverages in aseptic mode. So far, JFA has made use only of the option for filling still NFC juices, concentrate-based juices, squashes and vegetable juices in PET containers with a 38-millimetre neck finish.

Now it still has an option available for likewise producing carbonated drinks with a fruit-juice content in future and filling these in containers with a 28-millimetre neck finish. It was not least for this purpose that JFA had a VarioAsept shell-and-tube heat exchanger installed, for flash-pasteurising soft drinks with a fruit-juice content, plus a second disinfection unit for 28-millimetre closures.

Operators handle all machines

The new line has been working in three-shift operation right from the start. Three employees, supported by one bottling manager, are sufficient to run it.

Another advantage was that there were no language barriers with the Krones personnel during installation and commissioning, since the Alsace is bilingual by tradition, meaning French is spoken there alongside German.

And Krones’ capability of supplying both the filling kit and the process technology involved made cooperation even easier for Eva and Buhler.

“In terms of process engineering, in particular, Krones has made substantial progress over recent years,” said Eva. “Being able to single-source everything made it a whole lot simpler for us.”

Long continuous running

The line now bottles up to 15 different products per week. Its maximum speed is 36,000 containers an hour. A choice of six mould sets are available, for blow-moulding both round and square containers.

Five of these (in sizes of 1.0 litre, 1.5 litres and 2.0 litres) have been designed for still beverages, and one mould is used specifically for blow-moulding a bottle later to contain carbonated beverages.

“Given the frequent product change-overs, it’s vital to minimise the times needed for intermediate cleaning,” said Buhler.

But not every product change-over inevitably necessitates an intermediate rinsing routine. Although the continuous running time has been acceptance-tested at 120 hours, in the case of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger JFA performs an intermediate cleaning routine after 72 hours, just to be on the safe side – especially when products with a pulp content are being handled.

“The figure we’re achieving for steam consumption, at 0.4 tons per hour, is a very good one. It shows that the shell-and-tube heat exchanger works at a high level of excellence, by balancing its own energy requirements itself,” said Buhler.

After the line had been acceptance-tested, JFA concluded a five-year maintenance agreement with Krones, which is linked to a set point operating efficiency. “The ultimate goal is for us to be able to perform maintenance routines ourselves after that,” explained Eva.

And “just in passing”, JFA also refurbished its existing glass line while the aseptic line was installed. The glass bottles are now dressed on two Prontomatic cold-glue labellers. So as to guarantee optimum label placement, JFA purchases adhesives from KIC Krones.

As a versatile all-rounder, the Variopac Pro WTFS can produce full-size cartons, trays with film, trays without film, or just film-wrapped packs. This packer has replaced several discrete machines.

“The Variopac has enabled us to reduce staffing levels per shift from six to four operators,” said Buhler.

For the former plant manager and for the present one as well, the target is to turn their Jus de Fruits d’Alsace plant into the most efficient facility within the LSDH Group. That should be no problem.

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