Quality control of liner materials to check they will have no sensory influence on the beverage.

Closurelogic

Closurelogic is the world leading supplier for all kind of screw-caps/closures (plastic/aluminum) for the beverage industry (soft drinks/mineral water/wine/beer/etc).

Activity : Supplier of screw-caps/closures (plastic/aluminum) for the beverage industry
Context : Quality control of liner materials to check they will have no sensory influence on the beverage.
Equipment : HERACLES Electronic Nose
Website : http:// www.csiclosures.com

An e-nose for higher quality beverage closures

CSI Germany produces aluminum closures, 28 mm aluminum closures and 30 mm “Long Cap” Wine closures. Per year, CSI Germany produces about 3 billion aluminum closures, with about 200 employees.

Improved screening of polymer raw materials with HERACLES electronic nose

Bastian Seibert, from CSI laboratory, explains: “The aluminum closures are manufactured here at our plant, from aluminum sheet to a finished closure. Aluminum sheets are printed and lacquered, depending on customer wishes. The closures are formed out of these sheets and as a last step, the sealing liner gets inserted. The sealing liner is delivered to our plant as a raw granulate. It gets molded by extrusion and inserted to the closure body. The adhesion is given by a special adhesion inside lacquer.

As the sealing liner is in direct contact with the product/filling goods of our customers, and the products are also mineral waters in many cases, the liner material needs to be from a high quality (no sensory influence to the products of our customers). Therefore we have a dedicated sensory panel, trained for mineral water testing, and as an additional safety/quality step since 2010 the HERACLES E-Nose.

“With HERACLES E-Nose we definitely achieved a higher quality level and thus have the opportunity to distinguish ourselves from competitors.”

With our sensory panel we check the finished closures/liners, and with the HERACLES E-Nose we check the raw granulate before it gets processed, to check for constant quality. We use the E-Nose for checking incoming goods (liner material, sealing discs for Long Cap closures, etc.), and for development and qualification of new materials (liner materials, lacquers (lacquered sheets), etc.)

With HERACLES E-Nose we definitely achieved a higher quality level and thus have the opportunity to distinguish ourselves from competitors."