Small size PET and rPET containers
In the latest years, in many countries of the Gulf region, the growing tourism flow has generated a significant hike in the consumption of small-sized PET bottles of water. In these areas people prefer using small containers which allow the water to be consumed immediately in a single serve and to avoid wasting or heating it to room temperature. An increasingly higher number of bottling companies are developing container formats that can meet these needs.
Among them, the tiny bottle of 200 ml designed by SMI engineers for the Saudi company Soqya Al Madina Water is an elegant solution suitable for distribution in hotels, restaurants, bars and airplanes, whose diamond pattern imprinted on its surface recalls the idea of crystal clear water. The 200 ml PET bottles are manufactured by the EBS 10 KL Ergon stretch-blow moulding machine that SMI is showcasing at Dubai’s Gulfood Manufacturing 2023 event.
From the design to the production of containers
With a team of specialised engineers and latest generation designing tools, SMI is able to design, develop and virtually prototype a wide range of packaging solutions made from rPET and PET. The containers designed by SMI for water highlight the product contained thanks to their shape and special decoration. SMI relies on an advanced 3D CAD department for bottle design and graphic processing, that, after an accurate analysis of the customer’s requests, turns the container idea into a detailed project and, finally, into a physical prototype. SMI said that the engineers have designed more than 1,700 containers, featuring simple and highly complex shapes suitable for different products.
Container moulds
SMI manufactures moulds and machines for stretch-blow moulding, filling and packing containers in PET and rPET. The bottle moulds installed on SMI stretch-blow moulders are manufactured using a special aluminium alloy. The 12 machining centres can achieve an output rate of around 15,000 moulds per year and are equipped with linear motors running at 80 m/min and mandrels running at 30,000 rounds/min. For large-scale production of these containers, SMI offers a wide range of rotary stretch-blow moulders from EBS Ergon series, available in stand-alone or Ecobloc version, integrated with the filling and capping modules. SMI machines from EBS Ergon range are compact, efficient and ergonomic and adapt to the needs of smart & green factory for productions up to 50,000 bph.
