An innovative processing technology has been developed that allows hot filling of standard grade PET CSD bottles, while retaining rigidity and shape, which is available from Alliance 4 Business Solutions.
The new, patented technology enables to selectively control the crystallinity formation across the PET bottle wall section, thereby increasing diverse PET bottle performance characteristics.
In a demonstration of the increased PET bottle performances, the company’s website features a video demonstrating a conventional, CSD-type PET bottle, made from commercial grade standard PET being filled with boiling water, while maintaining rigidity and shape.
“Conventional PET continues to enjoy strong consumer appreciation across a wide variety of applications, but it has faced greater difficulty in finding major inroads to higher margin market applications without the need for additional investments in performance enhancing complementary materials and/or converting technology infrastructure,” says Johan Robbrecht, director of A4BS.
“At the same time, ongoing pricing pressures and the need for maintaining profitability levels, mandate a continuous reduction of the overall ownership cost of PET applications,” he says. “In order to meet this combined challenge of expanding top-line growth opportunities and bottom-line profitability with PET applications, A4BS has developed a proprietary technology platform, focused at inducing macromolecular pre-alignment of PET in the injection melt.
Mr Robbrecht continues: “The opportunities for this technology in hot fill applications are substantial: having access to structurally lower cost heat set bottles will not only expand their use across currently uncovered geographical and/or consumer segments, but could also bring important cost savings to the already established application categories. Commercial value can be created for all players across the PET value chain.”
In addition to heat set bottle applications, the technology could also offer lightweighting opportunities, capitalising on the increased mechanical performance characteristics obtained. In turn, lightweighing of the preform wall thickness drives both material and process cost savings as well as improving on the ecological footprint.
Implementing this technology requires either moderate retrofitting to existing hot runner configurations and/or design adaptations of newly constructed hot runners. As the required hot runner insert pieces are not overly complex in design, the costs should be very comparable to other machined metal pieces currently used in an injection moulding system.
Follow-ups to this story will appear in future issues of Packaging Today.
