Beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage material having a device to treat bottles and a method of treating bottles with said device

1. A method of operating a bottling plant, said method comprising the steps of:

moving bottles to be filled into a rotary bottle sterilizing arrangement and sterilizing at least two of the bottles simultaneously in said rotary bottle sterilizing arrangement;

said step of sterilizing each of the bottles comprising:

providing ultraviolet light and emitting said ultraviolet light from an emitting device;

positioning said emitting device inside the bottle;

emitting said ultraviolet light from said emitting device in a spherical pattern and sterilizing the inside surface of the bottle, wherein the intensity of the ultraviolet radiation that is emitted in a spherical pattern is not distributed uniformly over the surface of an imaginary sphere, and irradiating predetermined areas of the bottles more intensively than other areas of the bottles; and

positioning said emitting device outside the bottle upon completion of treatment of the inside surface of the bottle with ultraviolet light;

moving the sterilized bottles out of said bottle sterilizing arrangement and into a rotary bottle filling arrangement;

filling the sterilized bottles with a liquid product;

moving the filled bottles out of said bottle filling arrangement and into a bottle closing arrangement;

closing the tops of filled bottles; and

moving the closed bottles out of said bottle closing arrangement.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said emitting devices are flexible.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein:

said step of positioning said emitting device inside the bottle comprises one of:

moving the bottle relative to said emitting device to thereby position said emitting device inside the bottle; and

moving said emitting device relative to the bottle to thereby position said emitting device inside the bottle; and

said step of positioning said emitting device outside the bottle comprises one of:

moving the bottle relative to said emitting device to thereby position said emitting device outside the bottle; and

moving said emitting device relative to the bottle to thereby position said emitting device outside the bottle.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein:

said emitting device comprises optical fibers configured to emit ultraviolet light;

said rotary bottle sterilizing arrangement comprises:

a rotor configured and disposed to rotate about a central vertical axis; and

a plurality of bottle holders disposed about and on the periphery of said rotor;

each of said emitting devices is disposed at a corresponding one of said bottle holders; and

said rotary bottle sterilizing arrangement comprises a plurality of ultraviolet sources configured and disposed to supply ultraviolet light to a corresponding one of said emitting devices.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein:

said emitting device comprises optical fibers configured to emit ultraviolet light;

said rotary bottle sterilizing arrangement comprises:

a rotor configured and disposed to rotate about a central vertical axis; and

a plurality of bottle holders disposed about and on the periphery of said rotor;

each of said emitting devices is disposed at a corresponding one of said bottle holders; and

said rotary bottle sterilizing arrangement comprises a common ultraviolet source configured and disposed to supply ultraviolet light to all of said emitting devices.