KHS strengthens Carlsberg China with two environmentally conscious beer canning lines

14 Sep 2021 --- KHS has installed two new canning lines for Carlsberg China in what it says is an advancement for environmentally sustainable packaging in the country and an example of how project implementation can be carried out under COVID-19 restrictions.

The two canning lines are located in Carlsberg Dali Brewery (Dali City, Yunnan Province) and Carlsberg Yibin Brewery (Yibin City, Sichuan Province).

“We succeeded in quickly implementing an intelligent, space-saving line concept in close cooperation with the customer’s project team,” says KHS’ global key account manager Norman Gras.

A KHS spokesperson tells PackagingInsights the move coincides with the company’s development of a new plant in Kushan, China.

“The plan is for the move to take place this fall. We also have offices in Beijing and Shanghai. We owe our strong position here not least to the decades of involvement in China that the predecessor companies of KHS began – long before the KHS offices were established in Beijing in 1998 and in Shanghai in 2004.”

The line can produce up to 60,000 0.5 L cans per hour.Cutting time, cutting costs
The new line designs for Carlsberg China have a heavily reduced number of buffers and conveying segments, making higher demands of the system control and machine availability, explains the company. This means that shorter distances between the individual stations on the line tolerate no faults in the production processes.

“KHS sets standards in the canning segment,” states Paul Kime, assets and projects director at Carlsberg Asia.

“The reject rate is under 1 percent and the level of efficiency is over 95 percent – and it is even 100 percent in Yibin. These are fantastic figures.”

At the heart of the line is an ultramodern Innofill Can DVD can filler that processes up to 90,000 0.33 L cans or a maximum of 60,000 0.5 L cans per hour, ranging from local brands to Carlberg’s products.

The concept also incorporates an Innopas SX tunnel pasteurizer and a packaging system consisting of an Innopack SP shrink packer at each respective plant plus two wrap-around packers in Yibin and one in Dali, where several years ago KHS installed three convincing returnable glass lines.

Dry production cuts out water waste on the new line.With its state-of-the-art robot grouping, palletizing with the Innopal PB1 RG2 gives Carlsberg the flexibility it needs to cope with any tasks the future may have in store, says the company.

Lubrication free
Another special feature of KHS’ current project was the request for a lubrication-free container conveying a concept and a dry production environment.

“Normally, we work with belt lubrication to minimize wear and keep the coefficient of friction constant,” Gras explains.

“At both plants, the beverage cans run dry on the belts. In opting for this solution, KHS has disproved an ancient dogma – in the past, brewers were absolutely convinced the floor had to be wet – and helped Carlsberg in its striving for greater sustainability by saving water.”

“The entire project was ideally executed and is an important role model for future canning line setups,” Gras concludes.

KHS driving climate goals
KHS recently released its fourth sustainability report, presenting both its activities and results for 2019 and 2020 regarding strategy and product responsibility, corporate environmental protection and social issues.

A number of strategies, including machinery developments that slash carbon emissions and reduce plastics output, are listed in the report, which also details how the company’s overall strategy enabled it to save 10,868 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2019 and 2020.

By Louis Gore-Langton

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