100% rPET lightweight bottle base for still products
StarLite-R Still is a new bottle base that employs Sidel’s patented technology to ensure 100% recycled PET (rPET) integration, lightweighting, and high-speed production for water, juices, milk, and edible oil from 0.25 l up to 2.5 l.
Balancing production speed, material type, and bottle weight presents a complex challenge for manufacturers in maintaining high performance. According to Sidel the StarLite-R Still overcomes these with precise bottle base shaping and efficient material distribution. Its design can be seamlessly retrofitted onto existing production lines ensuring versatility and the solution requires low blowing pressure, further enhancing its sustainability credentials.
High performance
The StarLite-R Still bottle base features Sidel’s patented technology which includes smooth material-stretching and precise distribution; optimised venting for easy shaping; and a base cooling circuit ideal for rPET which is likely to be processed at higher temperatures. According to Sidel, the new design ensures that the base does not deform or break, crucial for maintaining the bottle’s integrity during production, conveying, storage, transportation, and use.
The mould base’s rounded-edge design makes it easier to shape during blow moulding, which increases the bottle base resistance to defects such as bursts during the blowing process. This feature is particularly important for lightweight bottles, which are more prone to such issues due to the use of thinner material. With a high base clearance, structural design prevents deformation, ensuring functionality and stability even in high-temperature conditions. The bottle base performs during high-speed production, thanks to efficient cooling. This cooling process prevents deformation and defects, maintaining consistent quality at rapid manufacturing speeds.
The bottle production process can use up to 20% less blowing pressure due to improved mould venting of the StarLite-R Still mould base. The carefully designed grooves and venting holes in the mould are claimed to ensure that air escapes smoothly, allowing the bottle base to take its desired shape at lower pressures. This bottle base can also be blown at lower pressure, only requiring 16 bars – a reduction of up to 20% on standard air blowing operations, translating to a further saving of 51 t/a of CO² equivalent. The bottle base is also compatible with a wide range of weights, including very lightweight bottles as low as 7 g for 500 ml format.
Versatility with StarLite-R Still
Sidel’s StarLite-R bottle base is claimed to provide manufacturers with increased versatility as it is compatible with round, square-round and rectangular shaped bottles as well as suitable for single or multi-serve sizes from 0.25 l up to 2.5 l. It can be used with transparent or white PET.
It supports single-serve production rates of up to 2,700 bph per machine and multi-serve rates of up to 2,400 bph per machine. The StarLite-R Still can be used with virgin PET as well as rPET and be produced utilising Sidel’s EvoBlow, Universal, and Series 2 blow moulders.
Expanding StarLite-R range
The streamlined bottle base is the latest addition to Sidel’s StarLite-R range, joining the ranks of advanced designs like the StarLite-R for carbonated soft drinks (CSD), StarLite-R Nitro and StarLite-R Premium.
The original StarLite-R for CSD, was Sidel’s first solution dedicated to rPET, offering enhanced protection against deformation, improved stability, and increased resistance to bursting. In 2024, Sidel released the StarLite-R Nitro, a high-resistance bottle base specifically engineered for still nitrogen-dosed products in 100% rPET bottles and the StarLite-R Premium, a sleek, high-performance bottle base for distinctive, 100 % rPET bottles.