The refurbishment and development trend of the "beer" canning process

The refurbishment and development trend of the "beer" canning process

The beer is light, easy to transport, carry and open, and leads the trend of fashion consumption. It is one of the fast-moving three-car (bottle, canned and barreled) beer packaging.

The manufacture of domestic aluminum two-piece cans began in 1985 with a total investment of 300 million US dollars to introduce 13 cans production lines with a production capacity of 11 billion aluminum cans. In 2003, the number of canned beer cans was 2 billion, an increase of more than 8%, which was higher than the growth rate of 5% of bottled beer, indicating that the domestic high-end beer market is expanding.

The major beer tankers ranked first in Budweiser and Qingdao, with 200 million and 400 million respectively. Among them, Budweiser is the world's rare and domestically-shaped beak-shaped can, which shows that the global beer boss is different. Tsingtao Brewery is the first to introduce 500ml cans in China, and through packaging innovation, it can better meet the needs of consumers for different capacity specifications.

As the canned beer is increasingly favored by consumers, the domestic canning industry is out of the woods, and Bole, CROWN, REXAM, Pacific (PACIFIC), United (UNITED) and other foreign capital Aluminum cans and Shanghai Baoyi steel cans have divided the domestic beer metal container market.

Aluminum cans

Aluminum has good processability and printing adaptability. It is suitable for high-speed and continuous automatic production. Aluminum cans are not rust, corrosion-resistant, opaque, fresh and preserved. The products are light in weight, safe in transportation and storage, and can be carried and used. Convenient, waste cans and old cans can be recycled and recycled, which is good for environmental protection. Domestic brewers with a capacity of more than 200,000 liters are basically equipped with a canned line to produce cans of beer. The sound-storing performance of the wine is excellent, clean and hygienic. The shelf life can retain the fresh flavor of the beer to a large extent within 12 months, thus attracting more and more large-scale urban youth consumers.

Aluminium cans are made from a coil of 0.28 mm cans in a total of ten processes: cupping, stretching, thinning (three times), slitting, undercoating, printing, closing and flanging. The process flow is as follows: the cupping machine makes the aluminum piece into a cup, the stretching machine stretches and thins the cup, cuts into a white can, and the washing machine cleans the white can, and the coating machine coats the surface of the white can. The primer and the external printing machine are printed for the can body according to the design pattern of different customers. The outer printing oven is used to dry the can body printing pattern, the can is made into the inner coating through the inner spray machine, the inner drying oven is used to dry the inner spray, and the wax coating machine is used. The wax is applied along the edge of the can, the necking machine and the flanger are finally closed and flanged. Each finished can needs to pass the light inspection program. The computer light inspection machine will automatically reject the unqualified products, and the qualified listeners will finally enter. Automatic stacking machine packaging. The speed of domestic canning plants is above 900 cpm.

Packaging process

The packaging process of canned beer is simpler and easier to control than bottled and barreled. The main equipment of an automatic listening line is composed of depalletizing machine, tank wine-winding machine, sterilizing machine, packing machine/sealing machine. The filling speed can reach 1000cpm, which is comparable to the canning factory.

The process of beer canning is as follows: the depalletizer removes the empty layer of the code layer from the plastic tray, pushes it onto the plastic chain plate, enters the washing machine, rinses with 80oC hot water, and drips it to achieve sterility. Then, CO2 isotonic filling is used, and the air in the tank is replaced by carbon dioxide. After the tank is filled, carbon dioxide is sprayed to the tank mouth, and the lid is quickly closed. The level is detected using an automatic meter, followed by pasteurization (spray sterilization). The filled listener is blown dry by the air dryer, and then sprayed by the printer at the bottom of the tank for production time.

According to the packaging form, different packing machines are used: single-die die-cutting paperboard is a wrap-around type, the listener is pressed onto a large surface of the cardboard, and the mechanical rod lifts the other large side and the two sides in turn, hot The sol quickly bonds the manufacturer's seams and flaps. The wrap type is widely used in domestic breweries and is supplied by the German company Kisters. There is also a KnockDown (manufacturer seam in the carton factory glued molding box), the suction cup of the cartoner will adsorb the large surface into a hollow, the mechanical rod pushes the listener inward, and then glue, the efficiency of this packing method Very high, widely used abroad. The wrap-around case packer can also be used to package a thermoplastic film holder with a paper holder. This case requires a PE film slitting, wrap system and heat shrink oven. If the surface of the PE film is printed, it is necessary to configure the photo-eye device. After auto-packing and bonding, the OPP sealing tape is generally no longer used in the listening box. The typical 355ml canine is packed in 24 cans, and there are also 18 and 12 cans, mainly based on the habit of consumers purchasing whole boxes.

Before and after filling

Modern beer processes use computer recognition systems and digital display instruments to assist in mechanized filling operations to ensure that beer quality is not affected during the filling process. The unloading machine can automatically detect the following defects in can manufacturing: oil, liquid, deformation, foreign matter, and odor, and remove the defective container from the line.

Empty listening is liquid tested before rinsing, and the inner wall is washed with clean brewing water.

Empty listening uses CO2 flushing, pressure preparation, and then pouring wine; after the end of the filling, it is then released, broken, and then sealed. The tolerance of 355ml listening content should be controlled at ±8ml, CO2 between 2.65-2.85, OG 10.7-11.0, and TPO average control below 134ppb. Alcohol and roll seals are closely linked, and machine suppliers are mostly KHS.

The function of the HEUFT level detector consists of detecting the amount of listening content, automatically sampling, and recording the number of filling defects for each wine valve.

Beer sterilization process is divided into heating, 62oC sterilization temperature and cooling trilogy. Improper sterilization affects beer flavor. The quality indicators that should be controlled are: PU (8-10), MPT (141±oC), BOT≤27oC.

The level detection after sterilization is controlled by a Filtec weight meter, which automatically removes the alcohol from the liquid level.

The coding defects mainly include embossing, leaking, smear, and misregistration. The printer for small characters and high-definition coding is mainly Vediojet.

Retrofit

For canned applications, various forms of packaging have been developed abroad. If it can be used in the domestic market, it will be able to consolidate and improve the high-end status of canned beer, and promote sales, environmental protection and consumer safety. Innovative packaging forms mainly include:

â—† Canned embossing: A shaped canister, adding an embossing machine in the process of shaping the listener. By installing different molds, the surface of the listener becomes convex and concave and has personality. It is also possible to print an embossed visual effect by using a special ink, but there is no convex or concave feeling when the can is held.

â—†Temperature change effect: The beer pattern or logo is printed by the temperature-sensitive ink with low temperature change, and the display is started within a certain temperature range, which can not only prompt the consumer to the best drinking condition, but also play an anti-counterfeiting role.

â—†Sleeve film printing: PE film flexo printing and then attached to the white sound, the effect is the same as metal printing, but the flexographic printing is bright, flexible and environmentally friendly.

â—†SOT environmental protection cover: SOT means that the pull ring on the cover will be hidden in the cover after the cover is opened, so that the cover can be recycled together with the can body, and the consumer is protected from accidental puncture of the pull ring.

â—† Cover dustproof: Due to consumers' complaints about the hygiene of the cover and drink, a cover dustproof composite film is sealed to the can lid after filling and sealing to prevent dust pollution.

â—†Aluminum bottle: The aluminum bottle invented in Japan is to adapt the metal container to the glass bottle filling line. The bottom of the bottle is in the shape of a listener with a bottleneck on the upper part. Surface printing is attached to the surface of the bottle using a pre-printed film sleeve.

â—† Paper cans: The can body is made of paper and aluminum foil, and the can lid is made of plastic with a pull ring. Due to the pressure resistance, it is not currently applied to beer packaging.

â—†Combined packaging: Various forms of listening package include HiCone plastic tape, shrink film wrap, die-cut cardboard wrap and die-cut cardboard connectors. If the order quantity is large, the machine package can be used, and if the order quantity is small, the manual packaging is more economical.

â—†Hand hole box: The hand hole box for packaging 12, 18, 24 has a hand hole on the side of the carton, which is convenient for consumers to extract when purchasing the whole box. In order to enhance the strength of the hand hole, a surface layer of hot-melt PVC fabric is generally used, which is adhered in advance on the corrugated cardboard line of the carton factory.

Food canning trend

According to the last technical meeting of the Packaging Exhibition/Food Processing Machinery Exhibition, EZO is at the forefront of this trend. Cans are practical containers for food, and with the easy-to-open lid, there is no need to use a can opener. Costs can be a problem, but supporters of Ellaco cited the findings that consumers are willing to pay an extra 6 to 8 cents on each package.

“60% to 65% of European canned foods are easy to pull, and in the German market, this figure is 80%,” said Jeff Deliberty, marketing manager at SilganClosures in Downers Grove, Ill., “In the Asian market, The EZO penetration rate is approximately 60%."

But in the US market, Ibrahim's share is only 35% of cans. Deliberty predicts that this number will reach 60% in 2008. He predicted that the key areas of change will be pet food, soup/pepper/pasta, and fruits and vegetables.

While most of the discussion has focused on rigid metal pull covers, a new generation of easy-open lids, including peelable foils, some of which can be processed in ultra-high pressure vessels. They can be made into irregular shapes and the pattern on them can match the can label.