Bottle Cleaning Machines: Washers, Rinsers and Vacuums

Bottle cleaning, or container cleaning, machines are most often thought of as packaging equipment used to clean the inside of containers by blasting the same with air, water or other cleaning solution.  There are, however, other ways to clean containers before sending them to the filling machine to receive product.   

Some projects may require cleaning the outside, as well as the inside, of a container prior to the filling process.  For example, when bottles are returned and reused, such as three and five gallon water bottles, the outside of the bottle would be washed for sanitary purposes.  In almost every case, the bottle washer will include not only an exterior wash, but an interior rinse as well.  Many of these rinsing machines will include multiple cycles to wash, sanitize and rinse the bottles in preparation of being re-filled.

Bottle rinsing machines are normally found in industries such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage and other areas where product ingredients can become harmful when contaminated.  The most common rinsing machines will invert bottles over a rinse basin before using either air, water or another cleaning solution to blast the inside of the bottle and clear it of debris and contaminants.  Rinsed bottles will then normally be transferred down a power conveyor and into a liquid filler to receive product, followed quickly by the capping machine to seal the container and further protect product from contamination.  These packaging machines are available in different levels of automation to allow all of those using a sanitary packaging process to protect product from contamination.

At times, inverting bottles may be somewhat difficult if the bottles have a unique shape or extreme size, either small or large.  Bottle vacuums allow bottles to be rinsed while they remain on the power conveyor, without the need to invert over a rinse basin.  This is accomplished by using a special rinsing nozzle which will, like the bottle air rinser, still blast the inside of a container with shot of clean air.  However, the blast in this case is used to loosen dust and debris from the container.  The nozzles then seal the bottle opening and use a vacuum to remove dust and debris to a collection device.  Once the vacuum cycle is complete, the bottles are released and, once again, normally move to the filling machine. 

 

Whether a matter of necessity, aesthetics or just the simple preference of the packager, bottle cleaning machines exist for nearly any packaging project.  From stand alone semi-automatic machines to completely automatic bottle rinsers that roll up to the conveyor, LPS can help identify, design, build and install the perfect container cleaning machinery.