CHINA - Food giant Ting Hsin International ordered twenty complete Sidel lines equipped with Combi 20 machines to package 0.6 L bottles of mineral water at a rate of 36,000 bph.

Twenty lines equipped with Combi 20 Select GL machines, Alfa Rollquatro F35 labelers and Gebo conveyors have been delivered to some of Ting Hsin’s thirty plants throughout China, churning out 36,000 PET bottles (0.6 L size) every hour, since December 2006.

The Chinese company also ordered a hot filling line equipped with an SBO 14 HR (0.5 L, 2 L) a hot filler from Simonazzi and Gebo conveyors, outputting at 9,100 bph. At the same time, three new SBO Universal 20 HR blowing machines are being used to pack tea in square 0.5 L PET bottles at a rate of 26,000 bph.

With the addition of lines, Ting Hsin aims to capture the top spot in terms of production capacity on a water market growing at over 11 percent annually. The company also plans to expand operations in the tea and fruit juice sector that is expected to grow by 14 percent by 2008.

Ting Hsin International is already familiar with the Sidel Group, having ordered two aseptic lines from Simonazzi in 2001. Subsequently, it bought SBO blow molding machines. In 2005, Ting Hsin ordered seven complete lines from Sidel for mineral water, one of which included a Combi 14. Output rate was 25,200 bph.

The Sidel Combi concept, which combines SBO Universal™ blow molding and filling technology on the same machine, features reduced production costs, optimized line efficiency and totally controlled hygiene levels. Sidel also offers custom designed solutions that are well suited to the highly competitive mineral water market and feature low operating costs.