Sophisticated as it is, the IGI bottling operation will only be complete when a second aseptic filler is installed next year. This new filler will likely be a rotary blow/fill system from a machinery manufacturer in Europe. It will produce 200-mL and 1-L PET bottles of Spiky flavored milk, and that product will no longer be filled on the Asbofill system, says IGI’s Hesham Sheta.
Flavored milk is less sensitive to light than whole unflavored milk. That makes monolayer PET a simpler and more economical package than a multilayer HDPE/carbon black/HDPE bottle, says Sheta. Speed is also a factor. A rotary filler can outpace the linear GEA system, which is rated at about 200 bottles/min. Also appealing, says Sheta, are the blow/fill capabilities of the new equipment IGI plans to buy. “Otherwise, we need a separate blow molding machine connected by air conveyor to a filler,” says Sheta.
Once the second filler is installed and an automatic straw applicator is added to the secondary packaging line that doesn’t currently have one, IGI will be able to run both fillers simultaneously and send either PET or HDPE in any of the five sizes through either of the secondary packaging lines.
See the story that goes with this sidebar: Transforming the Egyptian dairy market
