PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2020

CAPS & CLOSURES 16 PET planet Insider Vol. 21 No. 01+02/20 www.petpla.net Solutions for attaching caps to single-use bottles for the duration of their use Till recycling do them part by Gabriele Kosmehl As far as tethered closures go, Aptar Food + Beverage may have the edge over others, as already five years ago, the manufacturer of sports closures and dispensing systems introduced the first sports closure solution with a tethered feature. At the BrauBeviale trade fair, the company presented several of their latest developments that conform to EU Directive 2019/904 Article 6. Ryan Kenny, Aptar’s President Food+Beverage EMEA, explained these solutions in more detail to PETplanet. “It was approximately six years ago that we undertook a new development of tethered closures on the assump- tion that the future could lie here,” says Ryan Kenny, explaining Aptar’s devel- opment history in this field. He contin- ues: “By the end of 2020, every new Aptar sports closure will be developed and commercialised integrating some form of tethering feature.” During BrauBeviale, the company presented three tethering solutions: Stay-With, Flip Lid and StrapBand. The Stay-With solution, originally developed and patented for Aptar’s first tethered sport closure, is primar- ily intended for sports closures where drinking is done from the closure spout and not the bottle neck. Stay- With features a band that allows unscrewing of the closure from the bottle neck, yet maintains a connec- tion point to prevent complete removal from the bottle. The “lasso” type of ring as Kenny describes it, ultimately prevents the closure from being fully detached where the consumer could lose the closure, while also allow- ing the consumer to fold the clo- sure down and out of the way when drinking directly from the bottle. “The advantage of Stay-With is that it is a versatile and proven solution, capa- ble of being integrated within existing products and assets, ultimately reduc- ing the level of investment required and time to bring solutions to market. For sports closures, where drinking is primarily done from the closure spout and not the bottle neck, Stay-With can be an excellent solution to meet new tethered regulations.” explains Kenny. Aptar is addressing the challenge that currently faces all manufactur- ers wanting to bring tethered caps into their range, by bringing intuitive handling and user-friendliness into harmony with functional and regula- tory attributes. “The EU rules and tethered caps were developed almost in parallel, so currently a variety of dif- ferent solutions are being introduced in the market that may not offer a user friendly or convenient experience for the consumer.” Aptar considers its recently developed StrapBand solution as a product that addresses such a challenge, and one that is particularly intuitive to operate. The solution has come from a partnership with Nippon Closures Co., Ltd. (NCC), a leading company in Japan for bottle closures. NCC’s patented StrapBand feature represents a market proven tethered solution available for today’s flat caps. Aptar and NCC continue collaborat- ing to bring StrapBand to market for a broader range of flat cap sizes in various product categories. Benefits of StrapBand include having a hinging functionality in a flat cap format, a wide opening angle and an audible click when articulating the closure down and away from the bottle opening; it can be adapted for both flat and sport caps for still and carbonated beverages. “StrapBand features a very intuitive locking mechanism. After unscrew- ing, just open the cap to the point you hear a click sound, and the closure will CAPS & CLOSURES StrapBand provides a hinge functionality with a wide opening angle and a click sound when tethered. Ryan Kenny, President Food+Beverage EMEA explain- ing Aptar’s teth- ered solutions at Brau Beviale