For equipment suppliers such as KHS Group, the key issue is no longer how many bottles or cans a line can fill per hour. The real test is whether those lines can absorb constant product variation without significant efficiency loss.
‘The beverage industry is clearly moving towards higher filling capacities, while at the same time companies are expanding their product ranges,’ explains Manfred Härtel, product manager of filling technology at KHS. ‘This calls for machines and lines that combine maximum efficiency with the greatest possible flexibility.’
That balance is becoming more complex as beverage portfolios fragment. A single facility may switch between carbonated soft drinks, flavoured waters, dairy beverages, juices or functional drinks within the same production cycle. Each product brings different flow characteristics, hygiene demands and filling behaviour.
KHS engineers flexibility directly into the line architecture. According to Manfred, rapid automated format changeovers and hygienic machine designs that shorten cleaning cycles are becoming central to maintaining output speeds. ‘Efficiency today is strongly linked to how quickly you can change over and return to stable production,’ he says.
Modern filling performance now depends on precision rather than mechanical speed. Sensitive beverages with higher viscosities, such as yoghurt drinks, milk-based products or fruit beverages, place greater demands on filling systems than traditional water or carbonated drinks.
Once ingredients such as fruit pieces, cereals or fibres enter the equation, the margin for error narrows further. ‘In these cases, it becomes important to test the physical limits of what is feasible. Valve diameters and the risk of pulp shearing become critical considerations,’ says Manfred.
KHS draws on beverage testing and simulation work conducted in its laboratories to manage this complexity. The company has built a library of beverage applications from previous customer projects, allowing engineers to benchmark how products behave under different filling conditions before commercial production.
The emphasis on precision is also changing how manufacturers think about product loss. High-speed beverage filling has traditionally accepted a degree of spillage and overfill as unavoidable. But tighter sustainability targets, higher ingredient costs and margin pressure are changing that calculation. ‘Every drop is valuable,’ Manfred stresses. ‘Not only for economic reasons, but also for sustainability reasons.’
KHS targets loss-free filling at higher production speeds through optimised valve geometries, precise filling control and improved container handling. According to Manfred, customers can currently process up to 100 000 PET and glass bottles/hour, or 136 000 cans/hour, without product loss.
This is significant because inefficiencies often emerge during line acceleration and braking phases where instability traditionally causes spillage. Advanced simulations are now used to eliminate these losses before lines are commissioned. Automation also plays a broader operational role beyond throughput gains.
With beverage producers facing mounting labour shortages and rising operational complexity, automated systems are increasingly judged on their ability to simplify maintenance, reduce operator intervention and stabilise quality output.
‘Automated processes ensure high-quality production while reducing the workload on operating staff. They improve uptime through faster product changes, shorter CIP cycles and reduced setup times,’ says Manfred.
Packaging is also becoming less forgiving. Lighter closures, thinner materials and higher recycled content may improve sustainability metrics, but also increase the sensitivity of containers during high-speed handling and capping.
