PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2017

BOTTLE MAKING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 04/17 www.petpla.net 25 Disposable kegs for beer, wine and CSD Italian-made PET kegs by Kay Barton Polykeg manufactures containers in four ranges. Premium Line (BT), Smart Line (HS Plus), and Basic Line (H Plus) are each available in four sizes, ranging from 16 to 30l. Slim Line HS and H kegs come in 20l capacities; they are primarily differentiated by their handle designs. “Our customers don’t just come from the beer and CSD sectors; they come from the wine industry as well, so our kegs are used across a wide range,” Erica Tenconi explains. “We offer them in four different colours and with five different connections, for different markets and systems.” She used a 24l container from the HS Plus series to illustrate her points. With the exception of the Slim Line kegs, all the different types of kegs have PP reinforcement in the base section. Depending on the model line, the top part of Polykeg kegs feature a carry- ing ring with or without a second rein- forcement, as well as carry handles. Although inner bags can be integrated if requested, the company says that the kegs don’t actually need them in most circumstances. “The containers all work with a nominal pressure of 3.5 bar, as required by the market,” Walton says. “During our regular quality assurance pressure tests, the PET containers actually burst under approximately 10 bar of pressure. This means that our kegs – across all four ranges - are among the most resistant currently available in the market. In terms of the logistics, we wanted to create an infrastructure for our products similar to that used with steel kegs. The BT and HS Plus and Slimline, in particu- lar, are ideal for stacking, due to their PP reinforcement and their carry ring systems.” Four different preform types for the kegs are manufactured by Polykeg in-house. The company also offers the possibility for production at customers’ own facilities, by means of an integrated Polykeg production line. “Business is going very well,” Tenconi says. “Since 2015, we have doubled our capacity.” Today a large proportion of this capacity is exported. www.polykeg.com During our PET keg tour we visited Italian manufacturer Polykeg, which is based near the city of Bergamo. The company, which claims to be the only manufacturer in its field currently active in Italy, produces four ranges of disposable PET kegs. Polykeg was founded in 2012 by CEO and inventor Sergio Sonzogni, as a division of his existing corporate group. Sonzgoni, who originally came from the water cooler market, has more than 25 years of professional experience in the PET field. We weren’t able to speak to Sergio Sonzogni himself; his colleagues, Philip Walton, Technical Director, and Erica Tenconi, Management Assistant, related facts and background information about the company. The innovative packaging company PET PREFORMS & BOTTLES MONOLAYER, BARRIER, REFILL, HOTFILL VISIT US AT INTERPACK DÜSSELDORF 4 TO 10 MAY 2017 | HALL 7, LEVEL 1 / B21 www.resilux.com | sales@resilux.com