Air Rinsing Machines Cut Down on Waste During Bottle Cleaning

While rinsing machinery may not be a part of every packaging process, it can often be necessary to protect the integrity of the products being packaged. This is especially true for foods, beverages and other products that are ingested by consumers. Dust and debris left in bottles can not only ruin a product, but may be harmful to the individuals ingesting the product. Rinsing machines are one way that packagers can remove contaminants from bottles before introducing a liquid product to help keep the entire process sanitary.

For those that do incorporate rinsing equipment into the packaging line, there exist several different ways to clean containers. Some may use water to rinse out bottles, others may use a more harsh cleaner to sanitize bottles and some may even use product to rinse containers to avoid contamination with other liquids. While these wet rinsing techniques will work for many projects, they also create additional waste as the packager will have to dispose of the water, product or other cleaning media used in the process. For this reason, another option, that of rinsing with air, has become more and more popular in the packaging industry.

Air rinsing machines work in the same manner as wet rinsers, inverting bottles over a rinse basin before performing the rinse. With the air rinser, however, a blast of clean air loosens and removes debris from the bottles, where wet rinsers nozzles would blast the bottle with water, product or other solution. Instead of the rinse basin capturing the rinse media and the debris, the air rinser simply catches the debris as it falls from the containers, resulting in much less waste throughout the production day. Using an air rinse, of course, also removes the danger of water or other solution being left behind in the bottles during the fill as well, further protecting the integrity of the product.

In some cases, air rinsing may also be the only feasible solution for a packager. As noted above, a majority of rinsing machines work by inverting bottles over the rinse basin. Large, heavy or oddly shaped bottles, however, can make the inverting process extremely difficult. In these cases, bottle vacuums can be used to clean the inside of containers. Bottle vacuums allow containers to stay on the conveyor belt during the rinse process. These machines use special nozzles that seal over the bottle opening, then blast the bottle with clean air to loosen debris. After the blast of air, the loosened debris will be vacuumed by the nozzles into an easily cleanable waste reservoir, again leaving only the removed debris as the waste.

While both wet and air rinsing machines can be useful tools for different packaging projects, Liquid Packaging Solutions has seen a rise in the use of air rinsers simply due to the decrease in waste created. For more information on the different container cleaning options, or to discuss the rinsing needs of your own packaging project, contact an LPS Packaging Specialist today.