PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2016

PRODUCTS 69 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 09/16 www.petpla.net Bericap’s new closure developments for 5-gallon container The closures used for 5-gallon water containers are known as HOD-Home and Office Delivery-closures. The necks of these containers are standard across the world. Due to the blow moulding process, however, the necks usually exhibit poor quality and a variation in diameter which often results in leakage from 5-gallon containers, except where an adequate HOD closure is used. In response to the poor quality of the bottle necks of up to 5-gallon containers, several years ago Bericap developed a 2K HOD closure (shell plus liner) which ensured absolute tightness even on poor bottle necks and under extreme supply chain cir- cumstances. In line with the global trend towards improving the quality of packaging and cutting costs, Bericap has developed a lightweight 2K HOD closure, saving about 30% of resin. Over the last few years some HOD bottlers in North America, Europe and Asia have started to improve the packaging quality of the HOD containers by moving from a blow-moulded container to an injection-moulded PET container. The necks of such contain- ers are of good quality with only small neck diameter tolerances. Bericap has successfully developed a liner-less one-piece closure fitted with a specific seal “Valvelock Trumpet”. It was tested successfully on new PET necks and the 5-gallon con- tainers have proven to be leaktight. Both new closure types are available with a centre shutter and also with a low-cost pierced centre membrane. In addition, Bericap has developed an ultra-light neck/closure solution, Valvelock SuperShort, for one-way PET containers in cooperation with Sipa. Weight savings in excess of 18% on the neck and 40% on the closure are achievable. www.bericap.com