PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2011

BOTTLE MAKING 16 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 11/11 www.petpla.net Emergent Technologies teams with PTI to create two-compartment PET container A winning smile Emergent Technologies, LLC*, Chanhassen, Minn., has teamed up with Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI) to com- mercialise a two-compartment PET container, called the Smiler. Having done extensive research, Emergent saw a dual-compartment container as a way to help meet multiple consumer objectives. However, they needed to partner with a technology expert in order to transform their vision into a commercially-viable package. That’s when Emergent turned to PTI for assistance. The driving force behind the con- cept was to give brand owners the opportunity to market a single-serving of two compatible products - such as milk and biscuits - within one port- able container, according to Bill Weber, President and General Manager, Emergent. “Every time we showed the concept, people smiled and that’s how we came up with the brand name. We spent a lot of time looking for ways to push PET design and processing boundaries beyond what had previ- ously been done.” The proprietary Smiler technology enables bottles/containers to be injec- tion blow moulded into different shapes and sizes. The larger, top compart- ment holds the liquid, while the bottom holds the snack item. Additionally, both can be used for dry products and/or non-food items. The second or bottom compartment is created by drawing the base upwards which forms a small cavity into which a heat-sealed portion cup, containing solid, granular or pow- dered products, can be inserted and held by friction. The base opening can then be closed using a variety of heat- seal or pressure-sensitive materials/ methods. The top compartment relies on a traditional finish and closure. The biggest challenge was figur- ing out how to make a base cavity that was deep enough to house a second product. “We went through multiple iterations over a year-plus to make sure that both the design elements and the blow moulding process would meet performance objectives,” explained Scott Steele, Vice president, PTI. For example, in early iterations, the depth of the base cavity would cause the bottle to get hung up in the mould. An additional piece of hardware had to be designed to positively extract the bottle from the mould. “On the material side of the fence, the objective was to get monolayer PET to work. We did not want to blend in additives to achieve performance attributes because that would nega- tively impact container prices, as well as have a potential negative effect on the recycling stream,” Steele said. “The key was determining the optimum ratios between the bottom and top cav- ities, coupled with the finish diameter.” Containers have already been successfully produced for promo- tional events, but Emergent and PTI are now looking to bring the concept