Container Cleaning Machines and Unique Bottles

Container cleaning machines can use air, water or other cleaning liquid to remove dust, debris and contaminants from bottles and containers.  In its simplest form, a rinsing machine will invert bottles over a rinse basin before blasting the inside of the container with clean air or cleaning liquid, allowing the debris to simply flow out of the bottle and into the basin.  The industry and industry standards on any given project, as well as personal preference, will help a packager decide which cleaning solution to use.  However, across every industry, unique bottle sizes and shapes can call for the unique design and manufacture of a rinsing machine.

 

In a perfect world, at least a perfect world for a packaging machine manufacturer, every bottle would be the same shape and size and one machine would be produced for every project.  Needless to say, we do not live in a perfect world.  Bottles not only come in all shapes and sizes, but also in a wide variety of materials as well.  Each combination of size, shape and material may require several modifications to what one might describe as a "standard" rinsing machine.  For instance, glass containers can be slightly more slick than plastic counterparts, as well as a little more inconsistent when produced.  As a result, glass containers may need additional support when being inverted over the rinse basin.  

 

The additional support added will depend on the actual shape and size of the bottle.  Long, or tall bottles with a thin neck may use neck guides or neck grabbers to better support the top of the bottle while the soft pad bottle grippers normally found on the rinsing machines will still be used to support the body of the bottle.  Other containers may take on an oval, box, rectangle or other non-bottle type shape.  These containers may simply need additional support to stop them from shifting or slipping out of the bottle grippers.  In these cases, the additional support may take the form of a top support bar, extended or large bottle grippers or simply additional bottle grippers. 

 

On occasion, a packager will have a bottle that is simply not conducive to the inverting process due to a combination of size, shape and material.  In these cases, a bottle vacuum will often be used to complete the rinse before sending the containers on to the filling machine, capping machine, labeler and other packaging equipment on the line.  Using a bottle vacuum keeps the containers on the conveyor system and avoids down time from machine jams due to slipping bottles or from breaking bottles that slip out of the grabbers.  The bottle vacuum will still use a blast of clean air to loosen dust, debris and other particles from the container.  However, instead of inverting the bottle over a basin and rinsing out the debris, this container cleaning machine uses dual action nozzles and vacuums the debris into a waste reservoir after the air rinse.  Even small bottles can be rinsed using a bottle vacuum through the use of a puck.  Vials and test tubes will often have a round bottom, making them nearly impossible to move down a conveyor line.  By placing them in a flat bottomed puck, these containers can not only be moved along the conveyor, but can be rinsed, filled, capped and otherwise packaged like any other bottle or container.

 

Each type of automatic rinsing machine will come equipped with an easy to use operator interface that allows the user to set rinse times, indexing times and more.  The simple touchscreen interface also records recipes for easy recall, meaning that for any given bottle, initial set up need only be completed one time.  After the intial setup, the recipe can be reloaded and production can begin.  For facilities with lower production demands, semi automatic rinsing machines can be used as well.  Unique bottles may once again call for unique solutions with the semi-automatic container cleaning machines, but in general, the operator of the machine simply places the bottles on the rinse heads and activates the rinse via a foot pedal or other, similar switch.  

 

Whether a requirement of your industry or a personal preference for your product, container cleaning equipment can help to ensure that your packaging process and your product remain contaminant and debris free.  To learn more about rinsing machinery, call and speak with a Packaging Specialist toll-free today at 1-888-393-3693.