2014 has proven a record year for sales of Sidel’s Predis dry preform decontamination technology.
The company says its worldwide sales for the year practically doubled, compared to the 2013 figures.
In achieving this growth, Predis has helped produce beverages safely while reducing the costs and improving the environmental performance of the bottlers who have invested in it.
More than 15 years ago, Sidel said it was the first company to recognize that it was simpler and safer to decontaminate the preform, being smaller and having a single straight surface, rather than the bottle.
Sterilizing the preform presents an easy method for producing sensitive products safely.
When the dry preform decontamination solution was launched in 2006, the market was dominated by traditional solutions based on wet bottle decontamination.
Predis soon became the accepted standard for the beverage industry.
Since then, the company has enjoyed a leading position in beverage production technology and solutions for liquid packaging and its sales have grown steadily as companies throughout the world have recognized the benefits it brings.
The Sidel Predis systems sold in 2014 will be used in the bottling of a very wide range of products, from juice and ready-to-drink beverages, isotonics and functional drinks, mineral, flavored and coconut waters, to liquid dairy products including ultra-high temperature white milk.
It may also be combined with Sidel Capdis for the sterilization of caps.
To provide the flexibility to meet many varied applications, Sidel Predis has been sold in various equipment configurations last year, mainly in the Sidel integrated aseptic blow-fill-cap Combi Predis FMa.
As fully dry systems, Predis and Capdis enable the 100% decontamination of all types of preforms and caps within an integrated blow-fill-cap solution.
This provides both cost and environmental advantages that have been proven in many global projects, as highlighted by Arnaud Poupet, Sidel Product Manager for Predis: “Using hydrogen peroxide mist, Predis removes the need for any water and uses only small amounts of chemicals.”
“It is both cost-effective in providing complete decontamination and also offers significant environmental benefits.”
“The systems in use worldwide contribute to sustainability initiatives, with more than two billion liters of water already saved compared with traditional aseptic filling systems since their use began.”
When it comes to aseptic and ultra clean production, the Combi Predis FMa ensures total sterilization of the packaging in a single machine offering a competitive production alternative to protect the integrity and safety of any beverage of either high or low acidity distributed at ambient temperatures.
Beverage producers can calculate www.sidel.com/save-in-aseptic the potential cost savings that could be achieved in producing their beverage in PET on Sidel’s Combi solution with dry preform decontamination.
Freedom in bottle design
With decontamination taking place at the preform stage, the resulting blown bottle has not undergone any thermal stress.
This makes it possible for the designers to have total freedom when designing the bottle and allows almost any type of intricate bottle shape – round or square, small or large, in different sizes from 0.2L to 2L, at production rates from 10,000 up to 52,000 bottles per hour.
The continuous by-the-neck transfer of the bottles and the absence of thermal stress also mean there are fewer restrictions in terms of bottle lightweighting, known by Sidel as ‘full shape freedom’.
Beverage producers can also customize their bottles with a large range of both flat and sports caps.
Make it simple, keep it simple
The aseptic Combi solution with dry preform decontamination is designed to ensure food safety while being simple to operate and also maintain the flexibility and simplicity required by bottlers.
Complex configuration or sterilization is not required at the blowing stage because the preform is decontaminated with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) before being heated in the oven to activate the H2O2 through the existing preform-heating stage.
This results in a reduced risk of peroxide residue remaining within the preform.
This simple and efficient solution, including few technical features, such as filtered air treatment, ultra-violet c and surface decontamination into the blowing stage.
