PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2010

BOTTLING / FILLING 41 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 09/10 www.petpla.net higher neck diameters for premium mineral waters. The 1.5l private label drinks sector can be taken as an example and exhibits, in keeping with the level of carbonation, the potential for optimisation. It should also be noted, however, that with branded product bottles there are other factors to take into account. For better handling and opening/closing the caps usually have a greater height and on 1.5l private label bottles a cap height of about 11mm is the general rule. In addition to the appearance of the bottle, load tests were also carried out. Table 6: Topload resistance Topload resistance tests were carried out on empty bottles. The belief that bot- tles not used for carbonated drinks should have a better inherent stability to compen- sate for the lower internal pressure was not confirmed. On the contrary, the stability of bottles for highly carbon- ated drinks increases to an over-proportional degree with heavier bottles. On the other hand, in the 1.5l branded product segment the stability of bottles for non-carbonated drinks lies at about the same level as for medium carbon- ated drinks, this anomaly is based on the high standards for premium mineral waters. The study is continuously being extended to cover other countries and we are also planning, after having examined discounter brands, to look, in a further study, at supermarket brands. With regard to other ques- tions and analyses which may arise from the database PETplanet and the plastics technology department at the Technical University of Ilmenau are happy to be of service. Contacts via: zoom.petpla.net