Lightweight PET bottles for still water in South America
KHS 0.5-liter PET bottles weighing 8.9 grams and 1.5 liter PET containers at 22 grams are now available in Brazilian stores for the first time. The German systems provider of packaging and filling machinery has developed special bottle designs and preforms for both formats, making the PET bottles much lighter than the plastic bottles commonly found in South America while giving consumers the high degree of bottle stability they expect.
Water bottler Água Mineral Santa Joana recently began filling its new, lightweight PET bottles and is now making considerable cost savings in both materials and energy. "The lightweight PET bottles developed by KHS mark the start of a switch to extremely lightweight bottles on the South American market," emphasizes Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Niemeyer, CEO of KHS GmbH.
In both sizes of bottle material is specifically saved by the bottle thread being much lighter. This weighs in at 1.9 grams only for bottles with a neck diameter of 26mm. KHS also makes sizable material savings in the bottle body. "Despite this much lower use of resources our lightweight PET bottles still boast undiminished high stability," states Arne Wiese, product manager for Bottles & Shapes. This refers to the processing of bottles on the line, storage, shipping and finally handling in store.
Within its Bottles & Shapes program, KHS has redeveloped the lightweight PET bottles according to design specifications while taking the special requirements of the established Brazilian beverage producer into account.
