PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2011

BOTTLE MAKING 21 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 07+-08/11 www.petpla.net Some of the major machinery suppliers offer new bottle solutions for hot-fill applications Bottle developments for sensitive beverages The PET Keg revolution for beer Siapi was involved in the realization of an application for the beer sector: a coloured 4l PET Keg that was launched on the Benelux market with the Amstel brand by Heineken this past April 15, 2011. The weight of the KEG is 112g. The PET Keg is suitable for use at home, as it can be kept in the refrigerator and is extremely practical. The container has a built in tapping and dispensing system. The Amstel Tapje is available in most supermarkets, wine shops, liquor shops and at top wholesalers. Heineken recognized the high level of the application also from a technical point of view. In fact, Siapi contributed in the develop- ment of the PET Keg starting from the coloured preforms that, as is known, require specific decisions about heating the container body and, at the same time, cooling the neck. Siapi, leader in the stretch blow-moulding market for PET containers from standard to large capacity formats, has obtained considerable experience with PET Kegs - from 4l to 40l – for the beer sector, which replace the traditional steel kegs. This appli- cation is attracting a considerable amount of interest both among major international beer produc- ers as well as among microbrew- eries and promises important developments for the future. The PET keg is produced on Siapi machines (EA2) with Siapi’s linear stretch blow-moulding technology. www.siapi.it Nitrofill 15.5 hotfill bottle Krones’ NitroHotFill 15.5 is a new, lighter PET bottle for hotfill, which weighs in at 15.5g in the 500ml size and is suitable for filling temperatures up to 87°C. The sportscap closure was developed by Aptar and successfully tested at Krones. The neck finish weighs 1.3g. The company says that the result has a ‘casually elegant’ visual appear- ance and a reduced CO 2 footprint. Process control for NitroHotfill is based on the relax-cooling con- cept in the blow-moulding machine. After filling, an injection of nitrogen just upstream of the capper creates a positive pressure of 1.5 to 2bar inside the bottle. This pressure compensates for prod- uct volume shrinkage downstream of the recooler and is claimed to prevent bottle deformation from underpressure. The bottle does not have expan- sion panels. The process can be used for produc- ing bottles in the Contiform H, enables the use of aluminium moulds, and reduces the machine’s air consumption. Wall thicknesses are less than 1mm but can withstand internal nitrogen pressure of 1.5bar. www.krones.com Getting a handle on hot-fill Sipa has developed a new technology to allow users of its standard equipment to produce large hot-fill PET containers with handles. The technology uses a separately- moulded polypropylene handle that is auto- matically inserted into the container between the blowing and filling stages. It has already been deployed on an industrial scale on lines bottling vegetable oils in handled contain- ers. Sipa says that the process is suitable for hot-fillable containers upwards of 3l for such products as fruit juices, iced tea, lemonade, apple cider, juice cocktail and blends. The PP handle typically weighs around 9g. It needs to be designed for the specific bottle, which the company can help with as part of an overall bottle feasibility study. Sipa further claims that the technology’s key advantage is that it works with its standard bottle blowing machines, such as its SFL linear blow moulding machine and ECS integrated system. www.sipa.it sensitive BEVERAGES