Means to a good end

26 September 2012



Investment continues apace into material use, design and technology across a sector that remains key to presenting a product to the consumer in good order. David Longfield reports


Bristol-based Applied Market Information (AMI) – a research and consultancy provider to the global plastics industry – is in the process of preparing its first conference targeted at the plastics closure industry. To be held in Cologne next April, the Plastic Closure Innovations event will focus primarily on the non-beverage (or non-standard) industry.

Summing up the sector, AMI says non-beverage applications account for 60% of polymer demand, with toiletries and cosmetics the largest consumer of polymer in the manufacture of plastics caps and closures in Europe, at nearly 170 kilotonnes in 2010. However: “Beverage closures accounted for nearly 60% of the demand in units, equivalent to an output of around 130 billion pieces,” the company says.

“Bottled water has been a major contributing factor in shaping the beverage caps industry throughout the years, and is expected to continue to contribute to future market growth.”

AMI adds that the industry is now benefiting from a general economic recovery with improved functionality, convenience and market segmentation driving market growth: “A revival of organic market growth rates for end-use applications, increasing penetration of plastics bottles, as well as product innovation have triggered research into new closure solutions.”

Canadean’s Dominic Cakebread will be speaking at the Plastics Caps & Closures Conference 2012, to be held 20-21 November in Brussels. The market researcher’s director of packaging services will be broadly addressing “Global market & new product developments in caps & closures”, with a focus on beverage and food closures.

Benchmark setting

Targeting greater efficiency in the manufacture of lightweight hinge closures, Borealis has announced the launch of RF490MO, a new PP grade in its BorPure series, which is said to offer packaging converters a saving in cycle time of up to 10% and an energy reduction of up to 5%.

The company describes the random copolymer for transparent and non-opaque coloured closures as “a new benchmark in combining advanced product performance with sustainability in the conversion of lightweight closure solutions”.

“The launch of BorPure RF490MO offers closure converters new opportunities to realise their customers’ performance and visual requirements, their own need for improved manufacturing efficiency and the possibility to reduce their environmental impact in one solution,” says Borealis VP business unit moulding, Rainer Höfling.

The enhanced rigidity/impact balance of BorPure RF490MO is said to create superior hinge performance over time, with its high stiffness potentially allowing downgauging by 10% without losing overall mechanical properties of the final product at reduced wall thickness.

UK-based Bapco Closures broke new ground in Australia this year, announcing in June its debut deal in the country, with leading fruit processing company SPC Ardmona. Bapco is supplying the company with an 82mm Twister two-part injection moulded closure for its Goulbourn Valley and SPC fruit product ranges.

“SPC Ardmona was the first company in the world to pack fruit in transparent, resealable plastics jars that could be refrigerated,” says CEO Stephen Dawson. “So our closure with integrated fused foil laminate was a perfect fit for the company’s product design and brand development.”

The new closures utilise Bapco’s proprietary BAP (Bonded Aluminium to Plastic) technology, which requires “very precise induction welding capability”, according to Dawson. BAP works particularly well, says Dawson, on food that undergoes a retort process, such as preserved fruits, canned foods or any that require a good oxygen and moisture barrier, where an aluminium seal is required.

“Our leak rates have actually halved since the introduction of the BAP technology,” reports SPC Ardmona packaging manager Trevor Mackay.

In May, Bapco launched two all-in-one foil closures for the food industry, developed in partnership with US-based Aptar Group following a licence agreement signed by the two in March 2010, allowing Aptar to manufacture, market and sell the BAP technology. With a flip-lid design that allows consumers to open lids with one hand, Sim-pull is said to be suited to a diverse range of contents, including snack food and granular foods. A range of ringpull types allow manufacturers to tailor Sim-pull to their product specifications.

And Bapco’s Trilogy is a can-end replacement, featuring a two-piece spout and closure solution. Easy to open and reseal, Trilogy can also be customised according to the marketer’s application.

“These new solutions meet a growing demand for re-sealable closures for on-the-go and at home eating, when consumers want to enjoy a single portion of food and then save the rest for later,” says Dawson.

The BAP system removes the need for a thread on the container, and Dawson says that in addition to bringing manufacturers weight savings and reductions in operational costs, BAP has “opened a lot of doors” thanks to it enabling thermoformed containers to have a closure on top.

“You can’t put a thread on a thermoformed container, which limits what can be done with this technology,” he says. “It has the potential to be significant globally, but we want to do it in the right way, with partners who are long-term.”

Beverage developments

Extending its standard range, Aptar Food + Beverage is adding Contender, a new 38mm linerless flip-top closure suitable for hot fill applications, to its family of Original flip-top sports closures. “Most closures for hot fill need a liner, meaning unscrewing the cap and removing the liner before drinking,” the company says. “Contender makes on-the-go use that much easier, as the consumer just flips the cap and drinks.”

Aptar is also developing a 38mm flip-top sports closure that can be used on wet aseptic lines, a move that will bring the convenience provided by flip-top sports closures to sensitive beverages that necessitate aseptic filling. In the beverage concentrates segment, the company’s new 28mm PCO 1810 flip-top Duo closure benefits from enhanced functionality thanks to its non-drip pouring ‘beak’, while the bi-injection technique used in its production provides customers with many aesthetic and branding possibilities.

“Aptar is pursuing the development of closures which are lighter, using less material, and which provide the same high standards of functionality, safety and convenience for the end-consumer,” says the company’s president of global development, Jean-Marc Philbois.

Aptar has also supplied a custom two-part, hinged flip-top closure for the new 2.6 litre transparent PET carafes that have been revolutionising the Tropicana Pure Premium fruit juice range in the US. The flip-top section snaps into the lower base part, which has a ring-pull in the centre of its 42mm opening. An induction-seal foil component, supplied by Selig, is inserted into a circular channel moulded into the underside of the lower closure section.

“When you push it back past 90 degrees, you can feel it lock into position,” says Tropicana brand owner PepsiCo’s packaging innovation manager Nicole Green. The pour spout is also designed with a cut-off that prevents dripping.

In the UK, Aptar has provided a foam valve, actuator and overcap for Britvic brand extension Turbo Tango, launched as a limited edition test this summer. Said to be the first carbonated soft drink in a plastics aerosol pack, Turbo Tango is described by Aptar’s Helena Sigler as: “A deliberately edgy and disruptive product aimed at the teen market in the UK.”

Aptar’s beverage valves are made using the company’s Swimming Silicone material, which can be sorted in the PET recycling stream as it floats in the sink tank, thereby separating it from the PET flakes that sink to the bottom.

In early April this year, Husky Injection Molding Systems introduced its next generation HyCAP system for high output beverage closure manufacturing at the NPE International Plastics Showcase in Florida. Advantages of the new system include direct drive technology, providing improved plasticising speed and control resulting in improved shot-to-shot repeatability and better quality parts, with other enhancements including the electrification of the clamp lock function to improve efficiency and cycle potential.

“Part of our beverage packaging portfolio, our new HyCAP closure manufacturing systems are now developed as completely integrated solutions,” says VP marketing Jeff MacDonald. “This has enabled us to identify and eliminate waste throughout the production process. In doing so we have been able to strengthen each of the discrete products such as the machine, mould, hot runner and controller as well.”

On its stand at the NPE show, the Husky HyCAP 300 system exhibited a 45% productivity improvement over the previous HyCAP 300 system exhibited at NPE 2009, producing a 0.95gm 26/22 lightweight water closure at a 2.2sec cycle using a 96-cavity KTW beverage closure mould. At the NPE show in 2009, Husky first launched the HyCAP product line with a HyCAP 300, 72-cavity system running a similar application at a 2.4sec cycle.

With the official global launch of its HyCAP High Performance Package (HPP) due in 2013, Husky unveiled the system for the first time at Chinaplas in April. The company says HyCAP HPP is “the world’s fastest system for the production of injection moulded beverage closures”, and represents “a significant advancement in beverage closure manufacturing”, offering 20% lower energy consumption than the company’s previous generation product.

The HyCAP HPP system is said to incorporate a new mould concept that eliminates wasted processes and movements within the mould, resulting in “the highest levels of productivity for beverage closures”.

Adding a twist

Following the launch of its Viiva screwcap for sparkling wines in May, Guala Closures has launched Bikini – a two-piece, tamper-evident screwcap closure for spirits brands in the North American market. Bikini has a customisable outer shell, enabling brands to have additional shelf impact.

“We believe this product offers a step change in the North American market, which is now beginning to recognise the closure as an integral feature of brand identity,” says the company’s spirits business innovation manager, Dave Thomson.

Guala has also launched a product in South Korea for the country’s biggest whisky brand, Windsor. “This has a range of tamper-evident features, which have now been pushed by the brand as a television advertising theme allowing the consumer to recognise the genuine product,” says Thomson. “In general terms,” he adds, “our customers are continuing to ask for innovative tamper-evident solutions across all sectors. We have just made a major investment in new decoration technology for this reason.”

US-based Scholle Packaging was awarded a WorldStar President’s Award Bronze for its Zork SPK resealable closure for sparkling wine bottles, at the 2012 WorldStar awards in Croatia, this June. One of the first resealing solutions on the market for sparkling wines, Zork SPK was entered into WorldStar having won a Starpack award in the UK in September last year.

Judith Candy, Scholle European business development manager for Zork, said: “Wineries using Zork SPK have already found that the closure is useful, effective and popular with their customers.”

Amcor’s most recent development in its range of Stelvin screwcaps for wine is the Stelvin P, for ‘lightly sparkling wines’ with pressure levels of up to 6 bars, suited to bottles with a standard BVS (Bague Vin Suisse) neck finish.

In a global wine market for capsules and screwcaps of 18-19 billion bottles, according to Euromonitor International, the market size for screwcaps grew from 2.3 billion units in 2005 to 4.1 billion in 2011, with the trend expected to continue to 5.6 billion in 2015.

The Australia-headquartered global packaging concern initiated its first social media campaign for Stelvin in April, using Twitter and YouTube, with Facebook pages in both English and French. The campaign is “aimed at increasing awareness and acceptance of our Stelvin brand and screw caps technology with wine lovers, consumers and professionals, particularly in the traditional markets”, the company says.

“Amcor is growing worldwide in the wine market,” the company adds. “There is no major area in the wine world which is not showing significant growth rates. The major driver is the acceptance of screw caps by consumers.”

Rieke foamer range

Rieke Dispensing has launched a range of Foamer dispensers suitable for a wide variety of applications including hand soaps, hair care, personal care, household and pharmaceutical products. The five new models – the F1, F2, F6, F11 and F12 series – join Rieke’s existing RF08 Finger-Tip and PF17 Palm variants.

The “user-friendly” dispensers are available in a number of designs to suit different container styles, with the F2 incorporating an overcap. The foamers fit either standard 43mm or 40mm neck finishes, with doses from 0.8ml to 1.5ml, and can also be adapted to meet individual pack requirements.

The new range includes water-resistant versions and all are compatible with a wide variety of product formulations and ingredients. “With these additions, we now offer a full range of foamers that are competitively priced and cover all different styles, whatever a customer’s specific foaming needs,” says Rieke Dispensing MD Mark Box.

Zeller applies flip-top to Astonish

Working with Zeller Plastik UK, part of Global Closure Systems, the Bradford-based London Oil Refining Company has developed a headstand valve pack for its new Astonish range of household cream cleaning products. The use of a headstand application, untypical in the household market, led to Zeller supplying its standard PP 55mm hinge flip-top dispensing cap in a matt finish.

Custom designed embossed 550ml bottles from Alpla and labels from Systems Labelling were matched with Zeller’s five different colour closure options to enhance the shelf presence of the Astonish range, which is now sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. “To guarantee quality through the supply chain, three-tab peelable induction heatseal liners have been selected for ease of use by the consumer,” the company says.


Australian fruit company SPC Ardmona has cut losses from leakage with Bapco’s 82mm Twister closures SPC Ardmona Rieke Dispensing has launched a range of Foamer dispensers suitable for a wide variety of applications Rieke Zeller Plastik UK and the London Oil Refining Co developed a headstand valve pack for the new Astonish range Astonish Aptar’s new flip-top Duo closure has a non-drip pouring beak Aptar Aptar’s custom closure for new Tropicana carafes Tropicana Exploded view of the Zork SPK Zork SPK Husky’s HyCAP mould used at NPE 2012 HyCAP Guala’s two-part Bikini screwcap for spirits Bikini

HyCAP HyCAP
Rieke Rieke
SPC Ardmona SPC Ardmona
Astonish Astonish
Bikini Bikini
Tropicana Tropicana
Aptar Aptar
Zork SPK Zork SPK


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