PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2011

BOTTLE MAKING 25 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 04/11 www.petpla.net mixed drinks and mineral water in equal parts, however these bottles are on aver- age 2/3rds heavier than the Kenyan ones (Fig. 1.) By contrast to the bottle weights, when it comes to the caps we find ourselves looking at a considerably more homo- geneous picture, the slight deviation in the case of Kenya 0.5l is due to a few beverage caps. Particularly where 1.5l bottles are concerned, Egypt, like Germany, demonstrates the phenomenon whereby the weight of the lid has been optimized to a greater extent than is the case with the 0.5l and 1l bottles. Here too a cor- relation between the heights and weights of the caps is also discernible. By contrast to this, where the South African bottles are concerned, the fact that the caps are not so tall on the 1.5l bottles is not reflected in lower weight ratios (Fig. 2). It is interesting to under- take a quality-based study of the African bottles by com- parison to Germany. Here we have used orange peel on the neck and base of the bottle as a basis for compari- son. Whereas, in the area of the base, relatively high error margins were identified uni- versally, a very mixed picture emerged in the visual area at Fig. 2: Average weight of bottles based on volume and country of origin [g]