Swiss enterprise Pearlwater Mineralquellen AG (Pearlwater) is a specialist in the beverage industry, with a comprehensive and constantly updated knowledge of the production of bottled water, flavoured water and soft drinks. Since 2011, the company has belonged to Coop Switzerland (Coop), an international group with operations in both wholesale and manufacturing. Pearlwater was particularly interested in improving the performance of its end-of-line equipment.
After analysing the line’s performance, Sidel’s engineers identified that the main performance loss was coming from the handling of small bottle packs at the palletisation stage. Upgrading the pack conveying and rotation would enhance product quality and improve palletiser uptime. Sidel proposed enhancing the bottle positioning on the palletiser with its new electronic spacer pack conveying and rotation system.
This new system has improved palletiser performance, maximising uptime and packs and pallet quality, as well as reducing changeover time for new formats. It reduces dents and scratches by spacing each pack to generate the correct rows. With fewer bottles toppling and less damage, it also minimises downtime, as less manual intervention is needed to reposition the packs. The electronic spacer smoothly positions the smaller packs , ensuring pallet accuracy and more reliable production. Pearlwater was able to increase the reliability and flexibility of its palletiser in handling diverse pack sizes, improving overall line efficiency by 5%, and achieving better pack and pallet stability.
"“We are very satisfied with the project execution, follow-up, and the great collaboration we had with the Sidel team.”"
Head of Production & Logistics, Pearlwater