GEA Procomac aseptic technology aims at reaching the best performance in terms of filling speed, accuracy, flexibility and, at the same time, maintaining the sterility of the product: so GEA Procomac aseptic fillers are designed focusing on the elimination of any possible risk for the product and crucial attention to environmental control. GEA Procomac has developed a range of volumetric electronic fillers with magnetic flow meters that includes Fillstar CX for still and carbonated products with and without pulps and fibres.

CX is the latest innovation of GEA Procomac systems for what concern Aseptic Carbonated Beverages, based on the principle of the magnetic flow meter. Thanks to pneumatically controlled valves, filling cycle can be optimized for any product/container combination to obtain best filling performance or smallest footprint for the required speed.

Fillstar CX offers excellent performances for aseptic filling of still liquids, thanks to the absence of contact between filling nozzle and the bottle neck when bottling still liquids, but it can be optimized for hygienic filling of carbonated liquids with contact between bottle and filling nozzle.

The FX series for still beverages includes Fillstar FX for clear products, Fillstar FX P for still products with pulps and fibres with dimensions up to 3 mm (Ø) x 20 mm (L), and Fillstar FX C for still product with pulps, fibres and pieces with max dimensions of 5 x 5 x 5 mm (for example freshly squeezed orange juice even with fruit or cereal pieces).

During the filling cycle, the product is pushed by an overpressure of inert gas into the filling tank through a linear product path, and the filling process is made without contact between the filling nozzle and the bottle. The flow meter determines the quantity of liquid according to the container and closes a membrane valve when the preset quantity is reached, with no other moving components in contact with the product. Furthermore, a dual speed design (slow speed mode is used at beginning and end of filling cycle) allow to avoid foaming and to achieve high performance in terms of filling accuracy.

Key features of FX fillers are also the internal sterilization by means of steam and the changeover without breaking of sterility for any container with the same neck finish, due to complete bottle "neck handling" system. Dummy bottle insertion and extraction for closed-loop CIP and SIP are completely automatic.

Sterilbeam, GEA Procomac's caps sterilizer, provides sterile caps to the capper inside aseptic bloc, transforming the sterilization concept from chemical to energy based.

Sterilbeam uses low-energy electron beams to sterilize caps surfaces in-line with clear advantages: energy is available on site allowing a shorter transmission chain, there are no residuals of sterilization on the final product and the treatment time is in terms of milliseconds. A simple electron emitter is used to produce electrons and convey them into beams. These beams are then directed to the caps surface, killing any possible microorganisms that may be present by breaking and forming new chemical bonds in their molecules (accelerated electrons act at biological level).

Advantages

• Dry and sustainable technology
• No chemical consumption during production
• No water consumption
• Reduced piping footprint
• Ability to process flat and sport caps onthe same line
• Ability to process 28 and 38 mm caps on the same line
• Speed up to 720 cpm
• FDA approvable process

GEA Procomac developed ABF (Aseptic Blow Fill) system, the first rotary aseptic blow moulding machine (Airstar) aimed to have aseptic sterility as its core concept right from the start with an integrated aseptic filler and capper.

ABF decontaminates the preforms with H2O2 dry process, and maintains this sterility when blow moulding the PET bottles and throughout the entire filling and capping process. The system has been designed to minimise any possible risk of contamination during blow moulding and bottle transfer phases: ABF brings the whole process together within a sterile zone and all non-cleanable components are located outside of the machine. All surfaces in the sterile zone are accessible and are very easy to clean, and no lubrication is required within the sterile zone and the incoming air is filtered (via HEPA filters).

ABF uses GEA Procomac's Fillstar volumetric electronic filler fitted with magnetic flow meters: an industry standard for filling sensitive beverages. The bottles are neck handled throughout filling and capping. The Fillstar can fill any beverage including products with pulps, fibres or fruit pieces.

Sustainability and costs saving are the key points of GEA Procomac Aseptic Blow Fill system: it uses almost no chemicals or water, and energy usage is kept to a minimum by the elimination of air conveyors, sterilization and rinsing turrets and water UHT sterilization.

The whole system is more compact than traditional technology and requires fewer operators allowing a considerable operational and maintenance cost optimization.

ABF is an extremely flexible solution that can blow and fill up to 48,000 bottles an hour and operate at different levels of decontamination: this allows products with different shelf lives – low-acid aseptic beverages, high-acid aseptic beverages, ESL beverages, etc. – to be produced on the same system.

Modulbloc is the last generation of GEA Procomac wet PAA based aseptic filling bloc for low/medium speed aseptic lines, a compact solution with ancillaries units and caps sterilization on the same frame.

Indeed, speed is one of the variables that influence a beverage producer in the choice of an aseptic line, but a high degree of safety is an absolute must: all GEA Procomac aseptic filling lines allows production of high quality sensitive beverages packaged in appealing PET containers, providing beverage producers with lines capable of guaranteeing high safety standards, easy to manage systems and great flexibility.

Consumption and investment cost optimization are the main advantages of Unibloc ECOSpin, the 5th generation of GEA Procomac wet PAA based aseptic filling bloc. The evolved design of Unibloc ECOSpin has led to the optimization of working angle of both sterilizer and rinser: bottles are turned upside down by a special inlet starwheel before the sterilizer and after the rinser, with a considerable reduction in footprint.

GEA Procomac choice for PAA sterilization is to use only one PAA solution for bottles internal and external sterilization, environmental sterilization (SOP) and caps sterilization. It is the most simple and easy way to get a robust and reliable sterilization process for bottles and caps: one PAA solution and only 5 parameters under continuous control, to reach required performance: pressure, temperature, concentration, flow rate and spraying time.

The effectiveness of the treatment is monitored by the Smart Sensor: in case of malfunctioning of a single nozzle, the Smart Sensor stops the machine and avoid bottles entering in the filling zone.

The high solubility of PAA make the rinsing mechanism easier: a new designed full cone commercial nozzle and a pulsed rinsing method have led a more effective rinsing treatment; consequently, rinsing time is reduced and water consumption is so low that water recovery is no more necessary.

Sterile water for caps rinsing and for PAA dilution is produced by microfiltration and ancillaries are reduced to only two units: ECOFLUX integrates in one skid sterile water microfiltration (FDA approvable) and air / N2 / steam filtration; ECODOX, the automatic inline dosing system for diluted PAA solution preparation and recovery tank, is included in the sterilizer base frame and provides sterilizing solution of PAA at the right concentration, temperature, pressure and flow rate for internal and external sterilization of bottles and caps and SOP.