A sterilization line comprising upstream-side and downstream-side tanks for storing liquid which are connected by a conduit for transferring the liquid, holding tubes for sterilizing the liquid which are disposed in an intermediate section of the conduit, heating units for heating the liquid in stages which are disposed in a section of the conduit from the upstream-side tank to the holding tubes, and cooling units for cooling the product liquid in stages which are disposed in a section of the conduit from the holding tubes to the downstream-side tank. A swing bend is used to perform switching between a section of a liquid flow path located on the upstream side of multiple intermediate piping systems and a cleaning solution path for a cleaning-in-place operation and switching between a section of the liquid flow path located on the downstream side and the cleaning solution path for the cleaning-in-place operation.

A gripper arm for a device for gripping, holding and guiding bottle-like containers having a bore to support a bearing pin to pivotably fix the gripper arm in the device and including an energy store for moving a gripping section of the gripper arm by a control cam from an open position into a gripping position and vice versa, wherein the energy store is spring tongue integrally formed on the gripper arm and elastically deflectable so as to operatively engage the spring tongue of another gripper arm of the device in a mirror-inverted configuration. The gripper arms produced from a fiber-reinforced plastic, so as to remain sufficiently free of contaminants and germs, and be easily cleaned as well as being faster and easier to produce.

A device for treating containers, for example, for filling and closing containers in filling plants is described. The device includes an isolator chamber in which the treatment of the containers takes place, and an outlet disposed beneath the isolator chamber for discharging fluids, wherein the outlet has a housing for receiving ejected containers and a suction device for extracting gases from the isolator chamber.

A storage system for storing objects of plastic material processed in a bottling line (45) comprises: a plurality of drawers (4) configured to contain groups of objects (5); a frame (2) which defines a plurality of compartments (3) configured to house the drawers (4); a conveyor (8) movable in the storage system (1) itself and configured to access the compartments (3) in such a way as to withdraw and place drawers (4) from and into the compartments (4); a loading bay (11) having one or more loading compartments for receiving corresponding drawers (4) and having a loading manipulator (28) configured to place in the drawers (4) the loose objects (5) received from an infeed conveyor (29); an unloading bay (12) having at least one unloading compartment for receiving a corresponding drawer (4) and having an unloading manipulator (41) configured to place onto an outfeed conveyor (43, 44) the loose objects (5) stored in the drawer (4).

A process station (1) for a parison or a container (2) made of thermoplastic material, comprising: a concave shell (3) configured to be applied onto the mouth (2b) of the individual parison or container (2) in such a manner as to enwrap at least partially the neck (2a) of the parison or container (2) so as to delimit a volume for treatment (4) of the neck (2a) subjected to plasma balls immersed in a carrier gas stream.

A device for filling containers with a filling product, that includes a stationary plant section, a plant section, and a rotary distributor is described. The plant section rotates in relation to the stationary plant section and includes at least one filling valve for filling a container with the filling product. The rotary distributor is configured to transfer the filling product from the stationary plant section to the rotating plant section, and has a distributor housing and a distributor shaft, which is at least partially accommodated in the distributor housing and which includes at least one bore for conducting the filling product. The distributor housing is disposed on the stationary plant section and the distributor shaft is disposed on the rotating plant section.

An apparatus for filling product into containers includes a working chamber through which the containers pass and the containers are acted upon by a sterile fluid to avoid contamination. An external line extends through the working chamber having a plurality of gas openings for the introduction of sterile air into the working chamber and that an internal line extends into the external line having a plurality of openings for spraying a cleaning medium. An annular chamber extends in a longitudinal direction between the internal and the external line. The cross-sectional area of the annular chamber varies in the longitudinal direction so that an even distribution of sterile air emerging from the gas openings into the working chamber is achieved.

A water sterilizer (60) includes a foreign-material removal filter (61) that removes foreign material in water, a first sterilizer (62) that is disposed downstream of the foreign-material removal filter (61), a first sterile filter (63) that is disposed downstream of the first sterilizer (62), a second sterilizer (64) that is disposed downstream of the first sterile filter (63), and a second sterile filter (65) that is disposed downstream of the second sterilizer (64). The first sterilizer (62) and the second sterilizer (64) sterilize the water by using an ultraviolet ray.

A continuous cycle bottling line (1) for containers of thermoplastic material, comprises: a parison (4) moulding unit (3), a thermal conditioning unit (6) for the parisons (4); a blow-moulding unit (10); a filling unit (12) configured to receive the blow-moulded containers (11) from the blow-moulding unit (10) and to fill them with liquid or semi-liquid food products; a moulding unit (13) for making caps (14) of plastic material; a capping unit (15); a storage system (2) which is configured to contain the parisons (4) and the caps (14), which is interconnected with the units making up the line, and which defines inside it a controlled-atmosphere environment; the line defines an integrated system where the connections of the different units with each other and with the storage system (2) are located in a controlled-atmosphere environment.

A device for treating containers, for example, for filling and closing containers in filling plants is described. The device includes an isolator chamber in which the treatment of the containers takes place, and an outlet disposed beneath the isolator chamber for discharging fluids, wherein the outlet has a housing for receiving ejected containers and a suction device for extracting gases from the isolator chamber.