Amcor's PowerFlexTM Ribbed Hot Fill PET Bottles

China Packaging Network Compilation: One of the major trends in the beverage packaging industry is the replacement of glass bottles with PET containers. As far as PET bottles are concerned, the current advanced design concept is to be compatible with the labeling equipment on existing glass bottle filling lines, and it can be applied to new types of PET bottles with little modification, and can be used on existing equipment at the same time. Apply pressure-sensitive labels on bottles and shrink labels on bottle necks without any modification.

However, PET PET bottles used for hot-filling have previously required rough ribs or the like on the side wall of the container in order to absorb the deformation of the sidewalls that occur during the cooling of the beverage to room temperature. The previous PET bottle capping machine and labeling machine were different from the traditional glass bottles. The beverage or packaging manufacturers would need to replace or upgrade the filling and labeling equipment by a large margin if they switched from glass containers to PET bottle containers. The cost is higher, and the traditional PET bottle is inferior to the glass bottle in appearance.

PowerFlex is Amcor's latest development of the first truly edgeless hot-fill PET bottle. It has the same beauty, performance and feel as glass. Hot filling can withstand temperatures of 182°-192° Fahrenheit. The structural design of Amcor's PowerFlex bottles not only eliminates ribs, but unlike other containers, PowerFlex has a large, completely smooth label plate, and PowerFlex bottles can be used in existing glass applications without making changes or making minor modifications. Install the line to run.

Amcor has designed a special base that absorbs the space created by the cooling liquid and developed the PowerFlex bottle. The base diaphragm pulls upward when the liquid cools. When space occurs, the inverted pyramid-shaped diaphragm deflects upwards, absorbing any deformation that may affect the wall of the bottle.
Trinity Springs Mineral Water chose Amcor's PowerFlex RIB-free hot-fill PET bottles to distribute organic mineral water.
For the first time, Trinity Springs introduced “registered organic” flavoured mineral water packaged in Amcor's 16-ounce PowerFlex non-ribbed hot-fill PET bottle.

In addition, earlier, Tradewinds Beverages Inc. also chose to package 16 oz of ready-to-drink (RTD) in PowerFlex non-ribbed hot-fill PET bottles. This PET bottle has the same look and feel as an existing glass bottle

Tradewinds brews its own tea in its specially designed water bottle and then fills the PowerFlex PE bottle with tea at temperatures between 180F and 185F.

The Trinity Springs and Tradewinds bottling lines have converted to PowerFlex RIB-free hot-fill PET bottles without much modification. It has played an important role in promoting the brand of the public company.

Amcor PET is packaged in approximately 80 sites in 21 countries, including factories in the United Kingdom. The headquarters of Amcor Corporation is located in Australia.

　　
Currently, tea beverage packaging includes PET bottle for hot filling, three-piece irrigation, Tetra Pak, glass bottle, BOPP bottle, PE bottle, and composite bottle. The most widely used tea beverage packaging material is PET for hot filling. The bottle, which has the advantages of transparent, beautiful appearance, flexible design, good oxygen barrier, etc. of the glass bottle, is also advantageous for the light and convenient carrying of the music bag and other plastic bottles, and avoids the oxygen-barrier property of other plastic bottles. Poor, poor mechanical strength, poor light transmission and other shortcomings, is an ideal tea beverage packaging material.

Main properties of PET bottles for hot filling:
The presence of benzene rings in the molecular chain of PET is relatively rigid, and the intermolecular forces are strong. Therefore, PET products have good rigidity, strength, and good barrier properties to non-polar gases. On the other hand, the rigidity of the PET molecular chain also makes it slower to crystallize, so during production, PET preforms can be first made by rapid cooling and then blown into a highly transparent, high-strength PET bottle. . After biaxial stretching PET bottles have the following good properties: good light transmittance and luster, light transmittance greater than 85%, better display of the packaged beverage; good mechanical properties and impact resistance; good Chemical resistance and chemical resistance; Good dimensional stability at room temperature (20~30°C); Due to the high strength of the PET bottle, the wall of the bottle can be very thin, so its unit consumption is small and its weight is light; it is especially gas to oxygen It has good barrier properties with carbon dioxide; it can be recycled and used for environmental protection.

Because PET bottles have good performance and environmental protection and adaptability, and at the same time, the cost of large-scale production is relatively low, it is indeed a very ideal beverage packaging material, so since the mid-80s of last century, Zhuhai Zhongfu Company in the country Since the beginning of mass production, PET bottles have become one of the most important packaging materials in the beverage industry. However, due to the poor heat resistance of the most common PET bottles, when the temperature of the beverage exceeds 60°C, the orientation of the macromolecules will be de-oriented, resulting in very significant heat shrinkage. Used for beverage hot filling production.

After the mid-1990s, Zhongfu Company and others took the lead in introducing the hot-filling bottle production equipment of the French company SIDEL. The high-temperature heat-setting process used to arrange the PET molecules in an orderly manner and increase the crystallization rate of the PET bottle wall. Heat resistance.

Domestic production of PET bottles for hot filling:

At present, there are Zhuhai Zhongfu Group, Shanghai Zijiang Company, Desheng Company, etc., which are the main manufacturers of PET bottles for hot filling in China. In addition, Dingxin Group and United Group also produce some PET bottles for hot filling at the same time they produce tea beverages. The main raw materials used include Shanghai Yuanfang, Taiwan Far East, Zhuhai Yuhua, Jiangsu Yizheng, Huayuan Leidis, and Shantou Ocean. According to the current domestic production of tea beverages, the French SIDEL bottle blowing machine and the Italian SIPA are used. Machines and Japanese ASB's HSO machines are used to produce PET bottles for hot-filling. The heat-resistant temperature can reach 85~95°C.

Classification of PET bottles for hot filling:

At present, there are 350ml, 500ml, 600m1, and 1500ml capacity specifications for domestic PET bottles for hot filling. 500ml and 1500ml are the most common. Bottles are mainly round and square bottles, and a large number of beverage manufacturers use square bottles. Top new companies, other beverage production companies basically use round bottles.
According to the crystallizing conditions of bottle mouth, it can be divided into crystal bottle bottle and amorphous bottle bottle. Bottles produced by SIDEL equipment, such as Zhongfu Company and Uniform Corporation, are crystal bottle mouths. Bottles produced by SIPIN Machine of Dingxin Group are amorphous. Bottle mouth, crystallization bottle mouth Because in the production must increase the crystallization process, the cost is higher, but the advantage is that the crystallization bottle mouth part can withstand the high temperature above 120°C, the bottle mouth is not easy to be deformed during beverage hot filling, and does not affect the cover Hermeticity. In order to ensure that the bottle mouth is not subject to thermal deformation, the wall thickness of the non-crystallized bottle mouth is generally thicker than that of the crystallized bottle mouth. The outer diameter of the bottle mouth is similar to that of the crystallized bottle mouth, and the inner diameter is approximately 0.25 mm smaller.

PET bottle production process for hot fill bottles:

Now domestic production of hot filling PET bottles mainly uses two kinds of high-temperature heat setting process - one blow bottle and two blow bottle processes. (1) Both ASB and HSO equipment and SIDEL's SRCF machines use a secondary blowing technique. First, the preform is blown to 1.5 to 2 times the final volume of the bottle, and then heated to about 200°C to make it smaller. The crystallization rate is finally pulled up to a predetermined shape at about 100[deg.] C. and the mold is quickly injected into the air to aid in shaping. The main advantages of this process are that the crystallization rate of the bottle is as high as 45%, and the high temperature can reach 95°C. However, the disadvantage is that the auxiliary device is bulky and has a large area, and the required heat energy is high and the production cost is increased. It is widely used. (2) SIDEL's SBOHR equipment is blow stretched on a mold at a temperature of 80 to 160°C. The bottle is crystallized by stretching and injected with air to aid in shaping. This process is relatively simple, commonly used in domestic companies such as Zhongfu, Zijiang, Desheng and Uniform. The bottle can be crystallized through the crystallizer in the bottle mouth, and the thickness of the bottle can also be increased directly during the injection of the embryo. The advantage of this method is that the auxiliary equipment has less floor space, less thermal energy loss, and can be exchanged with common PET bottle blowing machines. The disadvantage is that the bottles produced can only withstand temperatures of 85~90°C.

Source of information: pack.cn