PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2016

PRODUCTS 70 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 09/16 www.petpla.net PET Engineering designs the bottle for ‘everyday climbers’ Levissima, belonging to the Sanpel- legrino Group, presents its new ‘#LA75’, whose packaging is the result of the col- laboration with PET Engineering based in Treviso, Italy, which already handled the development of Levissima 0.5l, launched in 2009, and Levissima LaLitro, winner of the 2011 Packaging Oscar, both of which are still in the market. The brief given to PET Engineering stated two ‘must-haves’ for the packag- ing: create a bottle that could easily be carried around every day and which also could visibly express the unspoilt purity of the Levissima water that gushes from the Valtellina glacier. PET Engineering’s team came up with a slender and clean shape with an ergo- nomic and functional grip. The decorations around the grip actually work together with the push & pull top, allowing the bottle to return to its initial shape after every use. The cone-shaped neck has a raised feature showing the Valtellina Mountains, keeping the theme of the other Levissima-branded bottles, such as the prestigious 750ml glass container for the Ho .re.ca. channel. The new ‘#LA75’ is transparent and intended to represent the purity of Levis- sima water. It is very light, making it easy to slide inside your handbag, gym bag or computer backpack; it is easy to handle and ergonomic, perfect for both indoor and outdoor activities. www.petengineering.com www.levissima.it Prototype tooling for stretch-blown PET beverage bottles Clariant announced availability of new blow-moulding tools that can help customers evaluate how Clariant colour and additive masterbatches perform in real-world applications. The tooling is available for use on full-size production blow-moulding machines located in the Company’s West Chicago, IL, USA tech- nical centre. The new single-cavity tool, which is intended for reheat stretch blow moulding of clear or coloured PET poly- ester resins, produces a 12-oz (355ml) round bottle with a long neck and curved sides. The design is intended to reflect current design trends for liquor bottles, but can also be used to evaluate wine, soft-drinks and other food and beverage containers too. “This new mould includes the details that customers told us they wanted in prototype tooling,” explains Peter Prusak, Head of Marketing, Clariant Masterbatches North America. “The tooling we’ve had in the past produced flask-shaped bottles and the broad, flat panels where not as representative of the shapes that producers of liquor bot- tles and other beverage containers are looking for today.” The tooling can be used to evaluate not only colour, but also performance- enhancing additives and barrier properties as well. Prusak says that the way plas- tic materials stretch to create a bottle’s shape can vary depending on the colour and other ingredients in the compound. A resin/masterbatch combination that works well in one shape can develop cosmetic flaws or unacceptable physical properties in another. This is why it is so important to produce shapes that more accurately mimic the actual end-product containers. www.clariant.com