PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2010

BOTTLE MAKING 26 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 04/10 www.petpla.net Four new lightweight neck designs PMCI, the PET moulds and containers division of Italian company Sipa SpA, has developed a new range of lightweight neck designs that are suit- able for water, carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and hot-fill containers. Materials for mineral water packaging represent 70-75% of total packaging costs. PMCI says that its new design for the Alcoa 26mm thread finish, which is already very light, takes weight down from 2.4g to 1.8g – a 25% saving. The thread design has been developed and pat- ented in partnership with a US min- eral water producer and is already deployed in the customer’s manu- facturing plant. Material savings on the 26mm Novembal shaped neck amount to 1g – weight is claimed to be cut to 2.6g. While hot fill technology is popular for its advantages in reducing the use of preservatives in food and avoiding the need for aseptic processes, its value has had to be balanced against the need for robust packaging design. PMCI claims that its new neck designs enable signifi- cant resin savings for 28mm necks. The company’s Hotlight 28 weighs just 3.8g, which is less than half the standard 7.8g. It is an evolution of a neck design usually found in CSD applications and allows the production of hot fill and CSD products on the same line, without any compro- mise to sealing. www.sipa.it The company’s new design for PCO 1810 standard CSD closures uses the same height of the thread finish (21mm) but offers 27% mate- rial savings, bringing individual weight down from 5.1g to 3.7g – 1.4g per neck. The company says that this can add up to savings of many kilograms of PET a year. No change is required for the neck shape and the solution is fully com- patible with existing bottle lines. Medium and large users will be able to convert from their existing thread to the PMCI design. PCO 1810 5.1g New PMCI PCO 1810 3.7g C O S T EFFICIENCY ENERGY EFFICIENCY