When catastrophes strike and safe drinking water becomes contaminated, scarce, or unavailable, peacekeeping and human aid organizations, as well as military and commercial customers can benefit from a new kind of automated, water bottling factory.
ContenO, a Belgium company, designs and manufactures Smart Mobile Plants – completely automated factories inside containers or trailers. The facilities can package and process liquid products in any area of the world where safe drinking water is jeopardized or unavailable. The ContenO water bottling plant is designed to meet the strictest International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and FDA regulations.
These systems are called Smart Mobile Plants (SMPs), and can be mobilized anywhere in the world to produce hygienic bottled water. SMPs not only fill the bottles, they actually make them; all inside 20 or 40-ft containers.
All plastic bottles start out as small shapes called preforms made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). When the preform is heated and blown into a larger bottle, it is ready to be filled with a liquid. The Smart Mobile Plant bottling process has four steps. First the preforms are loaded into the bottling production line at the “stretch blowing machine.” There, each PET perform is heated by an oven and blown into a mold where a new bottle is shaped. Next, the filler-capper machine fills the bottles and a self-adhesive label is attached with a production date and lot number.
Customers can request the container bottling plants to be made with integrated purification systems and have standard, dedicated generators and compressors on board allowing them to run without operators and with any type of available local power.
SMP water bottling is just one application. Others can include edible oils, carbonized water, soft drinks, juices, gels, and liquid soaps. The company says the closed box systems are energy efficient. Auxiliary equipment include a bottle shredder to convert waste PET bottles into flakes so they do not become part of landfills or pollute the environment.
ContenO
www.conteno.com
::Design World::
Filed Under: Factory automation, AUTOMATION, MECHANICAL POWER TRANSMISSION, Motion control • motor controls
David Bryant says
Interested to know the specifications. Such as; how many bottles can it produce in a normal 8 hour day? How much power is required to operate at full capacity?
How many gallons of water storage are on board?
Great idea! Love the concept.