PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2011

CAPPING / CLOSURES 37 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 10/11 www.petpla.net what causes the neck to ovalise (dis- tort), which can, in turn, lead to leak- ing and contamination,” said Andison. While thicker, heavier finish sidewalls under the old standard helped to combat this problem to some extent, lighter-weight necks using the PCO 1881 standard could make matters worse. The DoubleSeal SuperShorty closure is designed to overcome these problems. Bericap’s DoubleSeal technol- ogy, a 2-in-1 Outer plus Inner seal in a single piece, liner-less closure, does not use down-pressure during the sealing process. Rather, it uses lateral, opposing-force pressure from both the outside and inside, thus effectively supporting the neck, instead of distorting it. According to Andison,the Dou- bleSeal SuperShorty closure and the bottle finish fit together like pieces in a puzzle. This results in a tighter, more secure seal to better retain carbonation. Injection-moulded from HDPE DoubleSeal SuperShorty closures are made with HDPE, rather than the PP typically used in typical two-piece closure shells. Bericap says that its caps can also offer cost, supply and environmental advantages. “His- torically, PP costs more than HDPE,” Andison said. “While HDPE comes from cracking natural gas, which has ample available feed stocks in North America, PP comes from cracking liquid, and is constantly competing with gasoline for access to supplies.” Two-piece PP closures also con- tain other materials, which implies a greater challenge in the recycling stream, which prefers mono-material products. According to Bericap, the injection moulding process itself also provides more control over critical features, which helps to deliver better dimen- sional stability and integrity of every cap than through two-piece compres- sion moulding. Smooth transition and line performance Bericap claims that its PCO 1881-compatible SuperShorty system fits smoothly into existing operations and that it works closely with bottlers, pre-auditing lines to identify changes that need to be made. Its on-site personnel pay particular attention to capper setup. “Correct cam selection and set- tings can virtually eliminate another frequent production issue on tra- ditional lines: cocked caps,” said Andison, the company has recorded cocked cap rates falling to less than one per 100,000 after conversion. Bericap says that it is now work- ing with all the major bottlers to help transition lines to the new standard while installing SuperShorty closure equipment. “Depending on customer preferences for external appearance, and the beverage being bottled, we offer half a dozen SuperShorty vari- ants, including lightweight closures for still water, advanced tamper evidence (ATE) options or a specific design for beer closures that are equipped with an oxygen scavenger, to protect the beer from oxidation. In addition to DoubleSeal Super- Shorty, Bericap began supplying major North American bottlers with PCO 1881-compatible Sportscap PushPull closures for 24 oz. contain- ers earlier in 2011. The company is also in the process of commercializing a PCO 1881-compatible ‘ThumbUp’ closure in Europe. www.bericap.com Dave Andison, President and COO of Bericap North America MHT MOLD & HOTRUNNER TECHNOLOGY Dr. Ruben-Rausing-Str. 7 | D-65239 Hochheim/Main Tel. +49(0) 6146-906-0 | www.mht-ag.de Make the most of your machine – with a mold from MHT! For many machine types, we supply the mold with the highest cavitation, thereby enabling optimum preform output. For the Husky HyPET machine, we offer an upgrade set for 33% more preforms, without refitting on the machine! • 60 cavities for Netstal PETline 2000 • 96 cavities for Husky HyPET 300 • 112 cavities for KraussMaffei 350 Engineering made in Germany Patent pending: MHT cool MAX ® post mold cooling