Empty PET bottle storage and retrieval

Empty PET bottle handling, storage and retrieval of empty plastic bottles is an area that Enterprise Tondelli have been active in for many years. One benefit is that the blow moulder can operate 24 hours per day maximising the benefit of capital investment whilst the filling line runs 8 or 16 hours per day. Other applications include the reduction of down time during blow moulder change over's, elimination of micro stoppages and the facility to top up direct blow moulder feeds to the filler by combining both streams.

The PET empty bottle feed system can be with a variety of methods; belt elevators, pneumatic elevators for opaque bottles, neck support air or mechanical conveyors or standard slat chain conveyors.

On the top of the silo are special distributors to ensure that the bottles feed the storage silo in a methodical way to maximise the space and prevent  peaking across the complete width and length. Bottle feeding can be carried out independently of emptying.

The bottles are stored in silo's which are specially designed to minimise bottle damage and crushing and also reduce pressure on the extraction process in the base. It is also possible to have regimented or "soldier" silo as well which eliminates the need for an unscrambler.

Typically the silo's are made in "sandwich" material with stainless steel lining fixed within a structural steel frame. It is possible to offer these in kit form to reduce transport changes and allow local labour to erect them. Typically capacities on an 8 m long x 4 m wide x 3.5 m straight wall is around 112,000 for 330 ml to 35,840 for a 1.5 litre PET bottle.

To prevent ingress of dust the silo can be fitted with a cover and an overpressure system.

The silo's can automatically feed an empty bottle unscrambler or alternatively we have a manual extraction and unscrambling system available. Enterprise Tondelli have supplied empty bottle unscramblers from 3,000 bottles per hour up to 50,000 bottles per hour. The unscramblers are available with orientation systems on the discharge as well.

Typical installations includes 3 compartment silo being fed from two blow moulders feeding three filling lines with PET bottles for edible oil in Egypt. Another project was in Russia where a two compartment silo of 55,000 bottles allowed the filler to run at full speed when running smaller bottles whilst the blower ran slower.

Alternatively we can supply an empty bottle de and re palletiser system instead up to 60,000 bottles per hour.