Thirst quenching machine - Pancevo-based Carbo Concept works with UN and German companies on unique mobile water bottling plant

According to some researches, every fifth person in the world has no access to drinking water. As the number of people on the planet is growing, the needs for water are becoming even bigger. In order to underline the importance of water and point to the fact that certain parts of the world will soon face a crisis caused by a shortage of this resource, about ten years ago the United Nations declared March 22nd as the World Water Day.

One of the activities in that field was to initiate a mobile water bottling plant project, which is being implemented by German companies Karcher and Plast Engineering Knauff in association with Pancevo-based Carbo Concept. The whole project is based on the engineering done by the company from Pancevo, that is, its PET blow molding machine.

- A PET blow molding machine, an innovative solution for the world's only mobile water bottling plant of the kind, came as a result of the challenge that we accepted and decided to put into action. At the request of the United Nations, Carbo Concept constructed the mobile water bottling plant in association with its representative - Germany's Plast Engineering Knauff, and the German company Karcher. This very important project is feasible exclusively owing to our machine's characteristics and innovative solutions that cut the electricity consumption to a minimum, enable oil- and lubricant-free functioning and the use of low-voltage electric grid and low-pressure compressors - Miroslav Stulic, director of Carbo Concept, says to eKapija.

(the interior of a container)

As Stulic explains, this mobile water bottling plant is placed in a moving container and is ready to filter and bottle water as soon as it is positioned next to any source of water (river, lake...). In that way, it solves a serious problem of the shortage of drinking water in the situations when the supply of water is difficult or completely impossible.

So far, 17 such plants have been sold. Among the countries that use it are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq. As Stulic says, the price depends on the capacity and amounts to about EUR 40,000 in Germany.

- In some cases, water bottling plants were bought by the UN and then the governments of certain countries or humanitarian organizations such as Red Cross emerged as ordering parties - he adds.

During the last year, Carbo Concept developed a new PET blow molding machine, utilizing completely different technical solutions that contribute to a greater cost-effectiveness and usefulness of this humanitarian project. Thanks to its new machine, Carbo Concept was one of the finalists for this year's Investment of the Year Award - 2012 Aurea.

(Miroslav Stulic and Zdravko Loncar)

- The new PET blow molding machine has kept the innovative and unique concept of blow molding at the pressure of 15 bar and oil- and lubricant-free functioning, but technical solutions are different and innovative when compared to those applied to other models of Carbo Concept’s machines and all other machines in the market. The innovation is reflected in substantial construction and technical improvements of essential elements: completely different pneumatic components, bottle conveyor system, insulated heat chamber, etc. Thanks to innovative solutions, the new machine is easier to manipulate and consumes even less electric energy and air, which is particularly important given that the mobile water bottling plant is expected to operate in extremely difficult conditions.

The latest machine will be installed in containers that Carbo Concept plans for the first time to produce by itself and, thus, eliminate all flaws of the existing containers. So far, containers have been produced in association with German companies Plast Engineering Knauff and Karcher. Last year, without the help of Karcher, Plast Engineering Knauff and Carbo Concept produced two 40 feet containers and equipped them with automatic PET blow molding machines, but Carbo Concept also launched the production of its own containers in 2011.

Tradition of quality

The company Carbo Concept began its operations in 1989 by working on the design of complete equipment for the production of carbonated and non-carbonated drinks. After taking active part in the market, the company "started working on its contribution to the development of a phenomenon called PET (polyethylene terephthalate)" and focused its operations on PET blow molding machines as of 1997.

- Carbo Concept makes three basic models of machines: Semi Automat, a semiautomatic machine intended for small companies, and two automatic models - Butterfly and Compact, which have different capacities. The former produces 1,000 bottles per hour, while the latter makes between 2,500 and 3,000 bottles hourly. These two are intended for small and medium-sized enterprises.

(Compact)

So far, over 100 PET blow molding machines made by this company have been sold to clients in 35 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, either directly or via representatives based in Germany (Plast Engineering Knauff), Russia (Ruska Trapeza), France (Plastic Services) and Italy (MPA).

People at this company are especially proud of the fact that the Vrsac-based pharmaceutical company Hemofarm uses their machine to make bottles for syrups that are exported to Germany.

For its blow molding machines, Carbo Concept won a gold medal for the best technical and technological innovation at Drinktec technology fair in Munich in 2002 and the Best Design award at the Novi Sad Fair in 2002 and 2003. All machines designed by Carbo Concept are copyright protected by the Patent Office.

Production expansion

Speaking about further plans, Stulic explains that they now work on a new, rotating machine with the capacity of 7,000-12,000 bottles per hour, which will cause a real revolution in this industry.

- The new machine will be saving 100 kWh of electricity per hour, which is an enormous amount of energy saved given that the machine can operate 24 hours a day. It will cause some sort of revolution in this industry and definitely draw attention of large manufacturers.

Carbo Concept currently employs about 20 people. The last year’s production and sales exceeded those in 2010, boosting the company’s total revenue to about EUR 800,000, while 2012 results are expected to be even better.

- Judging by ongoing negotiations, we expect this year to be even more productive. We will achieve that mainly thanks to a production capacity boost and the employment of new workers.

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