This document summarizes bottling operations across several European countries. It describes the process of sorting, packaging, and filling nearly 500 million used and new bottles per year across Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary. Key steps include removing used bottles from crates, filling crates with new bottles, sorting bottles by type, and palletizing sorted bottles for storage and transport. Logistical and infrastructure requirements like forklifts, energy supplies, and storage space are also outlined.

1. Bottles sorting and
packaging

2. Activity Area
• Germany
• Austria
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Romania
• Hungary

3. Western Europe
Germany
• KÖNIG PILSNER, Kulmbach: packaging and selling 20,000,000 NRW bottles, filling
ALE bottles
• Bitburg sorting 110,000,000 bottles, filling 45,000,000 new bottles, packaging
40,000,000 used NRW-bottles
Austria
• EGGER Brewery, St. Pölten: changing 13,000,000 NRW bottles
• STIEGEL, Salzburg: changing 20,000,000 NRW bottles
• STEIER BRAU, Graz: changing and sale of 15,000,000 0,33 VICHY bottles
• ZIPFER, Zipf: changing 56,000,000 NRW bottles

4. Central and Eastern Europe
Romania
• BRAU UNION Craiova: packaging 22,000,000 NRW bottles and BOSMANN filling
• URSUS Breweries SA: packaging 18,000,000 GOLD bottles
Czech Republic
• SABMiller - Plzensky Prazdroj: packaging 20,000,000 NRW (2006)
• SABMiller - Plzensky Prazdroj: packaging 34,000,000 NRW (2007)
Slovakia
• Heineken Slovensko - packaging 18,000,000 NRW bottles (2007)
• SABMiller - Pivovar Šariš - packaging and sale of 10,000,000 NRW bottles (on-going project)

5. Hungary
• BRAU UNION, Sopron - packaging and selling 24,000,000 NRW bottles (2003)
• BRAU UNION, Sopron - packaging and sale of 39,000,000 NRW bottles, BOSMANN
filling (2005),
• DREHER Budapest - packaging and sale of 14,000,000 NRW bottles (2005)

6. Germany actual
Sirl Munich, 90 Mio. € yearly with beverage logistic
• Permanent sorting 7-ways, full-automatic bottle out-taking, selection-in-taking
• Full-automatic de-palletizer
• Sorting of bossing-branded bottles
• 125.000 bottles each shift

7. Germany actual
Trinks Berlin, biggest beverage wholesaler in Germany
• Permanent sorting 4-ways, full-automatic bottle out-taking, selection-in-taking
• Permanent palletizing used bottles industrial
standard
Sorting of UV-stabilisized white glas
Sorting of bossing – branded bottles
• 75.000 bottles each shift

8. Operation steps
• 1) Removal of NRW bottles from the crates and industrial packaging
• 2) Filling new bottles into the crates
• 3) Sorting of the bottles

9. 1) NRW removal and packaging
• Generally, beer bottles arrive on EURO palettes (height of 5 crates), a layer
contains 8 crates.
• In one step, 160 beer bottles can be lifted and placed on the sorting table, sorting
is done manually.
• NRW bottles are stacked on the 1000 x 1200 industrial palettes (1904 bottles /
pallet).
• The size is1000 x 1200 x 2050 mm and weight is 720-750 kg.

10. Operation steps
1) Removal of NRW bottles from the crates and industrial packaging
2) Filling new bottles into the crates
3) Sorting of the bottles

11. • Plastic or cardboard-based separator sheets are used
• The stack is fixed with UV-resistant stretch foil
• The palettes can be stored in the storage area up to two stacks in height: 2 x 1904
/ 1.4 m2 = 2,720 units / m2
• The space required for the technology is 40 m2.
• Package can be loaded several times, so for example one truck from the pant to
storage, second truck after a while to customer

12. 2) Filling new bottles into crates
• Empty crates are placed manually on the loading unit
• The unloader and the loader machines shall be installed closely, so crates emptied can be
filled immediately with new bottles.
• Forklifts will be used to deliver the new beer bottles to the filling machine.
• The performance of the loading machine is geared to that of the removing unit.
• Separator sheets and industrial pallets that become available after loading the new beer
bottles can be used for packaging the used NRW.

13. Requirements
• Comprehensive material handling with forklift trucks
• Comprehensive energy and LPG supply
• Usage of amenities
• Person dedicated to handle the responsibilities of communication
• Capacity conciliation on a daily and weekly basis

14. Energy and material requirements
• stretch foil
• separator sheets (plastic or cardboard)
• pallets
• Compressed air, 120 litres/min and 6 bar operating pressure. If not available, a
compressor (30 kW ) shall be installed next to the machine.
• The energy required by the machine is below 10 KW.

15. Overview example
1 3/8 lines packing bottles from crates
2 recognize bottles
3 3-12 sorting lines
4 selective packer of bottles in crates
Selective control of crates
5 transportation, optional direction of
crates is direction of bottles
6 Bottles palettizer

16. Components
3-8 crates/step
bottles taking out
1.200 - 2.400 crates/hour
Energy 4-6 KW
6 Bar
20l-40l/min

17. Components
Recognition of bottles,
Speed up to 12 bottles /sec
Recognize rate > 99%
Blind out bad tees
Storage: 6 Mio. pictures
Recognize:
- UV-protected white bottles.
- Bossing
- different colour and shape.
Gate to any number of bottle lines.

18. Components
Sorting line
Line-greasing
Expandable to any number of sorting
lines.
Realtime Information Management ,
so you get information about the
mixery and so you can tweak the
bottle-gates, also check the effency
and record incoming trucks

19. components
Selective bottle packaging, clever logistic system
1.200 – 2.800 crates/hour
5 KW
6 Bar
30l-70l/min
Optional are the crates-lines under
the packer, moving in the same
direction of the bottles for easy
logistic

20. Components
Bottles packaging
20.000 Bottles / hour
6 KW
6 Bar
120l/min
Packaging industry-standard
Package can be loaded several times,
so for example one truck from the
pant to storage, second truck after a
while to customer

21. FAKTOR GmbH
Spinnereiinsel 3D
D-83059 Kolbermoor
Tel +49 8071 93120
Fax +49 8071 93122
www.faktor.de