SIPA specialists in filling technology have completely revolutionized the company’s range of volumetric fillers. Flextronic is the new name for our highly innovative, extremely flexible, modular platform. It elevates SIPA technology to the highest level available on the market today.
New filling valves in EVO versions have been developed at the same time to be perfectly integrated and interchangeable on the new platform.
By taking full advantage of the modular design of every element in the platform, and by combining the most suitable filling valves, it is possible to design solutions best adapted to the most diverse requirements in the bottling world. One of the key guidelines in designing the Flextronic platform was the ability to fill multiple products on the same line.
Carbonated, still and hot fill on the same line
At Drinktec, SIPA is showing the Flextronic C, one of the most complete and powerful configurations in the new range. The Flextronic C makes it possible to handle carbonated, still and hot-fill products, with or without pulp, all on the same line. It is therefore an excellent solution for water, soft drinks and juices.
The flexibility of the Flextronic C applies not only to the type of product it can be used for, but also the type of containers it can handle. It is very simple, for example, to switch from one neck size to another.
The filler at Drinktec will be shown in its “Xfill” configuration. This has no on-board product tank, and when the unit is used for carbonated drinks, the mixing unit tank is used as a buffer tank. The integration of the mixing unit with the filler makes it possible to obtain a high quality, stable finished product, with a consequent improvement across the entire filling process.
The combination of the new valve and the Xfill configuration offers a whole series of advantages for the user. For example, the extreme operational flexibility it provides minimizes product loss and downtime at flavour change.
Electronic management of the filling process
In addition, a new concept incorporated into the entire filling process electronic management yields a global reduction in power consumption. Consumption of carbon dioxide when filling with carbonated drinks is also reduced, as are product losses from the snift circuit. And these are just two of numerous plus points.
“We decided to look at our existing range of fillers in a new light to see if we could achieve even higher standards of quality and efficiency while retaining the simplicity and sterilizability of the original designs,” says Federico Zannier, Filling Line Sales Manager. “What we were aiming for was a new generation of fillers that would stand out with their versatility, high performance, ease of use and maintenance, in a complete system characterised by extreme cleanliness.”
SIPA has incorporated numerous innovative technical solutions into the Flextronic to achieve these goals. It has made use of the latest updates of the best mechanical, pneumatic and electronic components available on the market today.
Clean, safe and with faster maintenance
“With this platform we are introducing several new developments while retaining key advantages of the previous generation of fillers,” says Renato Le Brun, R&D Manager, Filling Division. “The valves are made of 316L stainless steel, and they are very solid and compact. They have been designed with a clear separation between the pneumatic components and the parts in contact with the product, in order to avoid any problems with contamination. And they are made up of a series of elements that can be separated without disassembling the entire valve, so maintenance is simpler and faster.”
The Flextronic C differs in several ways from its predecessor. The improved stability of the product during filling is particularly important for carbonated drinks. In addition, the new valve has larger channels for the passage of carbon dioxide, for improved operation with liquids containing pulp and fruit. The valve has been designed for “dry” pressurization via a separate channel for faster and steady decompression.
This solution makes the Flextronic C ideal for incorporation into SIPA’s SincroBloc blowing/filling monobloc: this not only eliminates the need for bottle rinsing, but also enables improved control over the entire filling process and hence an overall improvement in filling performance.
