Filled to the brim

The IC Filling Systems team in the plant in Italy. Image: IC Filling Systems

Filling technology has become high-tech business, sometimes with Italian flair. Evert van de Weg examines its history and speaks to IC Filling Systems sales director, Marco Solferini

Filling cans with food products goes back to the year 1810 when Peter Durand, a British merchant, received a patent for the idea of preserving food using tin cans after the discovery by the French scientist Nicolas Appert that food could be preserved by sterilization, for instance in a can. In the 19th and 20th century, the market for canned food developed rapidly and the technology to fill cans with food developed accordingly.

In the 1930s filling beverages in cans started to develop, beginning with the USA.

Beer was quickly one of the main beverages to be filled in cans. As an example, the Felinfoel Brewery at Felinfoel, Wales, was in 1935 the first brewery outside the USA to commercially can beer. Felinfoel was a major supplier to British armed forces abroad in the Second World War. Cans saved a great deal of space and weight for wartime exports compared to glass bottles, and did not have to be returned for refilling. Of course, in our eyes the cans were still old-fashioned and rather user-unfriendly. These early cans were three-piece soldered cans and did not have a pull tab, being equipped instead with a crown cork.

The development of two-piece DWI beverage cans with pouring-aperture aluminium easy opening ends in the 1960s gave the market for beverage cans an enormous boost, again starting in the USA.

Can makers started building special plants for the production of DWI two-piece cans; beer and soft drinks producers re-introduced their brands in two-piece cans. Big producers of filling machines like KHS, Krones, FMC, Ferrum, Sidel, Pneumatic Scale, Hema and others introduced new types of filling machines which were adapted for can filling. An important feature of the cans filled with beverages was that they often contained pressurized gas, which made them stiff enough for easy handling and drove out any oxygen which could be harmful for the quality of the beverage.

In the first half of the 1980s, I was working in the marketing department of a big international can maker in the Netherlands, promoting the use of the ‘new’ two-piece beverage can among big brand owners of soft drinks and beer. We tried to convince them about the advantages of cans in terms of consumer convenience in the first place.

But we also pointed out the advantages of no longer having to deal with returnable bottles, and right from the start we explained how favourable in many respects the easy recycling of metal cans was, in comparison with glass. In the beginning it was difficult to convince beer brewers that the image of their beer would not suffer too much by putting it in such a ‘modern’ can, but they often changed their minds and became passionate promotors of beverages in modern and beautifully printed cans.

Today for thousands of beverage brand owners all over the world cans are an essential packaging format and as we all know, the beverage can markets are globally booming as never before. Suppliers of filling machinery have taken advantage of this trend and have developed high-performance filling systems with capacities of up to 1,200 cans an hour. In many countries entrepreneurs discovered a gap in the market and came up with more tailor-made solutions.

Image: Shutterstock

Today, beverage can markets are globally booming as never before

Entrepreneur Giovanni Solferini saw in the 1990s that there was a need in the market for better adapted machinery for bottling, labelling and packaging all kinds of products. His son, Marco Solferini, sales director of IC Filling Systems, spoke to CanTech International about the development of the company since and, in particular, about the filling machinery the company offers.

Could you tell us more about IC Filling Systems?

“As previously stated, my father Giovanni Solferini founded the company in 1994 and he is still the managing director. Our manufacturing plant is in the city of Incisa Scapaccino in Italy. We have sales offices in the UK (Edinburgh & Oxford) and also an office in Santa Rosa, CA (USA). For 28 years we have been supplying our machinery for packaging a wide range of products like water, carbonated soft drinks, edible oils, beers, wines, high strength spirits, chemicals and toiletries.

“We are a family business that listens to our clients, act as technical advisors and deliver customised solutions tailored to their specific production requirements. Our vast worldwide experience in filling and packaging of liquid products offers our clients an opportunity to tap into our extensive databank of project management and technical knowledge.’’ 

Is there a special focus in your business on certain countries?

“Not really. We supply globally through a network of distributors that we have nurtured over the years.’’

Do you offer turnkey solutions for brand owners/fillers? 

“Yes, we supply turnkey solutions for all types of bottle and cans for various products such as carbonated beverages, still products, detergents, edible oils, food sauces, spirits. We don’t pretend to manufacture everything ourselves in-house, nobody does in our sector. However, we are able to choose the right partner for our client’s needs both from a technical and budgetary perspective.’’

Are there any innovations in your filling machines you’d like to mention here? 

“We supply a combined glass bottle and can filler ‘Hybrid’ system with electro-pneumatic filling valves suitable for craft breweries, wineries, soda companies etc which offers a lot of flexibility. We also manufacture a linear spirits filling machine in house for high strength spirits which is super flexible to handle various shaped bottles without change additional bottle handling parts.’’

How long have you been offering a counter-pressure system with CO2 to purge? Is that more or less standard for beer only?

“We have been offering this for over 12 years. It is now pretty much standard for beer filling into glass bottles now.’’

How do you look at the market of beverage cans for the relatively new segments of craft beer, wine in cans, hard seltzer and other specific drinks? Do you find them booming, at least in certain countries?

“For sure! Cans have become massively popular over the last three years due to the recyclability aspect, as an alternative to glass bottles. Consumers are becoming more environmentally aware and they like the fact that cans don’t smash should they be dropped. Glass bottles on the other hand are fragile and are not as easy to recycle.’’

I saw your machines are made conform to international quality and hygiene standards; anything special to remark in this context? 

“They are all CE conform and we also supply UL/CSA conform machines suitable for distribution on the US and Canadian markets.’’

How far does the magic word ‘sustainability’ play a role in the design of your filling machines?

“Our partners that we purchase raw materials from are all doing their best to improve their carbon footprint by using recycled materials and renewable energy wherever they can.’’

Does the company have a special focus on semi-automatic filling machines, more than your colleagues? For instance for craft brewers who are starting out and need lower capacities to start with?

“Absolutely! Our compact rinser/filler/capper block for beer offers clients flexibility to pack bottles and cans on one single frame with easy format changeovers; a first in the market at this level. It allows clients to have a technically high quality system that delivers high quality end results that you would normally achieve from a fully automatic system, minus the hefty price tag of a high capacity system.’’

What would you say sets your company apart in terms of filling?

“Whatever the size of bottling/canning line clients are looking for, IC Filling Systems can supply. We are problem solvers for first -time buyers as well as for well-established clients on the market. We can tailor a package to suit all their needs from empty container handling right through to end of line packaging/palletising.’’

What would you remark in this context about can quality, can sizes, labelling/sleeving?

“Good quality materials are imperative for the smooth running of any packaging line. Clients should always strive to find and use the best quality materials available on the market to ensure a ‘headache-free’ production line at all times.’’ 

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