Technologies for rPET bottle production
BMT Hall C6 – Booth 531
BMT brings Blowscan and Thermoscan to drinktec
BMT (Blow Moulding Technologies), a strategic technology partner for packaging, will exhibit its BLOWSCAN and THERMOSCAN systems. These technologies are designed to help manufacturers improve PET bottle performance, reduce waste and accelerate development cycles. In addition to its hardware solutions, BMT will also highlight its services in materials characterisation and simulation.
“At BMT we engineer the virtual world for real-world environmental impact. By making sustainability achievable, we’re helping brands and manufacturers optimise material use, reduce waste, and improve bottle performance,” comments Yannis Salomeia, BMT CEO & Co-founder. “Visitors can also explore our signature, ‘the BMT Way’, a collaborative workflow that combines data, hardware and technical expertise to streamline PET bottle production.
BLOWSCAN – a lab-based, single cavity stretch blow moulding platform
As the packaging industry accelerates use of recycled content, understanding material behaviour during stretch blow moulding (SBM) is essential. rPET and other sustainable materials behave unpredictably, making it harder to ensure consistent bottle performance – driving demand for tools that help R&D teams de-risk production.
At drinktec, BMT addresses this challenge directly, showcasing its lab-based, single-cavity SBM platform, BLOWSCAN. It is claimed to deliver data-driven insight into material performance, preform quality, and bottle development, without disrupting production.
Its modular design allows easy switching between free-blow and mould-blow modes, says BMT. In free-blow mode, materials such as rPET or bio-polymers are stretched without mould constraints, making it ideal for benchmarking material behaviour. Mould-blow mode supports rapid prototyping and validation of new geometries, enabling fast iteration during early-stage design and, in some cases, improving material validation rates by up to 20%.
BLOWSCAN uses a batch-fed preform system, no conveyors or hoppers and uses infrared to replicate industrial conditions. It captures key data, including preform temperature, inflation pressure, and blow geometry, enabling robust comparison across materials and machine setups.
“As brands push for lighter, more complex bottles, even small changes can create processing issues. BLOWSCAN helps de-risk early-stage development with quantifiable insights, while supporting site-specific process optimisation,” comments Josh Turner, Head of Materials Characterisation at BMT.
THERMOSCAN – precision temperature insights for sustainable bottle production
Sustainability targets are accelerating the shift to rPET, but recycled materials behave less predictably than virgin PET (vPET), leading to thermal variability and inconsistent bottle performance. Traditional responses, like adjusting oven power, often rely on guesswork, resulting in inefficiencies and quality issues.
THERMOSCAN is a lab-based thermal imaging system that provides high-fidelity temperature data for preforms and bottles. By capturing the temperature profile of a successful vPET run, teams can set informed starting points for rPET and use THERMOSCAN to compare and fine-tune heated preforms. This ensures more consistent processing and performance.
The system is claimed to offer a data-driven way to manage material changeovers, narrowing process windows and reducing reliance on guesswork. It accelerates setup time, improves quality, and supports more controlled, efficient operations.
It helps benchmark thermal behaviour across materials and machines, cutting profiling time by up to 30%. Its value lies in its ability to provide a full temperature profile of the preform, enabling faster, site-specific decisions for sustainable bottle production, says BMT.
‘The BMT Way’: measure, digitise, execute
‘The BMT Way’ is a structured, collaborative workflow that combines hardware, data, and deep technical expertise to streamline bottle development from concept to production, helping teams accelerate innovation, reduce risk, and consistently deliver high-performing bottles.
“It begins by capturing how materials behave in the real world, using tools like THERMOSCAN and BLOWSCAN to gather high-resolution thermal and process data across every stage, from preform to bottle,” explains BMT’s Project Lead, Jude Cameron. “This data replaces assumptions with measurable, repeatable insights. The information is then translated into virtual models to simulate forming and performance, enabling faster, more informed design iteration.“
By digitising this data, teams can explore design, material, and process interactions virtually, validate ideas with confidence, and reduce reliance on trial-and-error, according to BMT. Finally, insights are fed back into production through site-specific process adjustments and quality frameworks, driving consistency, reducing risk, and accelerating time-to-market. Unlike fragmented tools or isolated lab work, ‘the BMT Way’ aims to close the loop between design, validation, and execution, helping teams deliver high-performing bottles, faster.