2024 Equipment Overview - Container Cleaning Machines

Moving in to 2024, the trend in container cleaning is a move toward air rinsing machinery. Rinsing machines allow the removal of dust, debris and contaminants from containers prior to the introduction of the liquids being packaged. While these machines can use air, water or other liquid to clean bottles, air has become more popular for a number of different reasons, which will be laid out below. Even with the advantages, Liquid Packaging Solutions expects to build both air and wet rinsing machines in 2024, including automatic, semi-automatic, inverting and vacuum style equipment.

INVERTING RINSING MACHINES

Inverting air rinsers use a clamp to secure bottles and invert them over a rinse basin as they move through the rinse area on a power conveyor. These machines can rinse using air, water, product or other cleaning liquid. Either a blast of clean air or liquid will loosen the debris and allow it to flow out of the bottle into the basin for easy collection and disposal. As noted above, there exists a trend toward air rinsing machines for several different reasons. Air produces less waste than wet rinsing machines, which require the packager to get rid of the rinsing solution as well as the debris from the containers. Using an air rinse also ensures that the product being packaged will not be cross-contaminated with the water or other liquid used on a wet rinser. For those that would use product to rinse containers, the air blast also removes the waste that could result from rinsing with actual product. These and other factors have made the inverting air rinser a more popular choice in recent years when using this method of cleaning containers.

BOTTLE VACUUMS

While inverting bottles provides a quick method for removing dust and debris, some containers, due to shape, size, weight or other factors, are simply difficult to hold and flip. Bottle vacuums offer an alternative to inverting containers over a rinse basin. This type of bottle cleaner allows containers to stay on the conveyor while contaminants are removed. Bottle rinsers use special nozzles which create a seal over the bottle opening. Once the seal is created, a blast of air loosens debris and the nozzles vacuum that debris from inside the container. After cleaning, the bottles are released and continue down the power conveyor without ever being lifted or converted. Debris is collected in a waste reservoir for easy disposal to keep the cleaning process efficient.

These automatic version of bottle rinsers, both inverting and vacuuming, can rinse up to sixteen bottles per cycle and virtually roll up to any existing packaging line for quick and easy integration. While not every packaging line will require or desire rinsing, many different products benefit from remaining dust and debris free.

SEMI-AUTOMATIC RINSERS

For packagers with smaller production runs, rinsing machines can also be manufactured as automatic packaging machines. These rinsers require an operator to assist with each cycle, typically cleaning four to eight bottles per cycle. The operator will place bottles on rinse nozzles as well as activate the rinse cycle, usually via a foot or finger switch. Semi-automatic rinsers can also use air or water as well as the vacuum rinse described above. While not as fast as the automatic machines, these rinsers allow for consistent and reliable container cleaning on a smaller scale.

As 2024 gets into full swing, LPS expects to build a number of rinsing machines, both automatic and semi-automatic, for products such as distilled spirits, foods, other beverages and a number of industries that want to ensure clean containers before liquids are introduced. To learn more about the benefits of rinsing equipment or how to integrate a rinsing machine into your own line, contact LPS today.