High Hopes for Beer Bottles Enliven Packaging Conferences.* Three hundred billion beer bottles a year worldwide is a mighty tempting target for the plastics industry. So it's no surprise that 13 of 24 papers focused on beer packaging at the recent Nova-Pack Europe '99 Conference, held in Germany by Schotland Business Research, Skillman, N.J. Among the highlights were the first published comparison of manufacturing costs for multilayer and barrier-coated PET beer bottles, an update on nanocomposite barrier materials, and a report on "super-heat-set" PET bottles. More new developments for beer bottles will be presented at Schotland's Nova-Pack Americas 2000 conference in Orlando, Fla., at the end of this month. The meeting will hear about two new plasmacoating technologies for PET bottles and a preform pre·form tr.v. pre·formed, pre·form·ing, pre·forms 1. To shape or form beforehand. 2. To determine the shape or form of beforehand. n. 1. overmolding process. New barriers & coatings Brewers generally say they need a bottle that provides shelf life of over 120 days with less than 15% loss of [CO.sub.2] and admittance Admittance The ratio of the current to the voltage in an alternating-current circuit. In terms of complex current I and voltage V, the admittance of a circuit is given by Eq. (1), and is related to the impedance of the circuit Z by Eq. (2). of no more than 1 ppm of oxygen. Internal or external coatings, and three- or five-layer PET structures using barrier materials are being evaluated to reach that performance. The upcoming Nova - Pack Americas conference will hear about a "glass" barrier-coating method and an "injection overlay" technology, both developed by Tetra Pak Tetra Pak is a multinational food processing and packaging company of Swedish origin. It was founded in 1951 in Lund, Sweden by Ruben Rausing and Erik Wallenberg. The company is part of the Tetra Laval group which also includes Sidel- who specialise in PET bottles- and DeLaval, a Plastic Packaging Div. in Geneva Geneva, canton and city, Switzerland Geneva (jənē`və), Fr. Genève, canton (1990 pop. 373,019), 109 sq mi (282 sq km), SW Switzerland, surrounding the southwest tip of the Lake of Geneva. , Switzerland, whose U.S. office is in Schaumburg, Ill. Bottles made with both techniques are said to be fully recyclable, although full-scale tests are still under way. Commercial release of the technologies will begin in this first quarter. The first process, called Glaskin, coats the inner surface of a PET bottle with a very thin, clear layer of silicon oxide using a vacuum-deposition process. The "glass" coating reportedly can be applied at rates from 6000 to 18,000 bottles/hr. It is designed for beei juice, and carbonated soft drinks. The coating is said to extend the shelf life of a PET bottle from four to 12 months. The silica barrier reportedly also provides excellent flavor retention. Sealica is Tetra Pak's patented process for molding a multi-layer PET preform using a brand-new thermoplastic A polymer material that turns to liquid when heated and becomes solid when cooled. There are more than 40 types of thermoplastics, including acrylic, polypropylene, polycarbonate and polyethylene. epoxy barrier resin called Blox from Dow Plastics, Midland, Mich. Special equipment is used to injection mold the PET preform and then overmold it with the Blox material. This overlay process allows the thickness of the barrier to be varied as needed as needed prn. See prn order. . (For more on Blox, see p. 25.) Another new process that applies silicon oxide to the outside of a PET bottle was developed by Atlanta-based Coca Cola Noun 1. Coca Cola - Coca Cola is a trademarked cola Coke cola, dope - carbonated drink flavored with extract from kola nuts (`dope' is a southernism in the United States) Co. with the University of Essen, Germany. It employs vacuum-coating technology from Leybold Systems and a bottle-handling system from Krones, both in Germany. (Leybold Technologies is in Enfield, Conn., and Krones Inc. is in Franklin, Wis.). The Barrier Enhanced Silica Treated PET (BESTPET) process reportedly gives beer a six-month shelf life. The coating process can be installed between the blowing and filling systems and can coat 0.5-liter bottles at up to 20,000/hr. The coating is also said to be 100% recyclable. A 3000-bottle/hr prototype is installed at Leybold in Germany. The first commercial unit will operate this year in a Coca-Cola bottling plant Noun 1. bottling plant - a plant where beverages are put into bottles with caps industrial plant, plant, works - buildings for carrying on industrial labor; "they built a large plant to manufacture automobiles" . Leybold and Krones will offer the process to other firms. News in nanocomposites Nanometer-sized clay platelets dispersed in a resin matrix is a new barrier concept for PET bottles. Besides gas barrier, nanoclays reportedly impart higher strength, stiffness, dimensional stability dimensional stability, n See stability, dimensional. , and heat resistance to a monolayer mon·o·lay·er n. 1. A film or layer one molecule thick formed at the interface between water and either oil or air by a substance such as a partially esterified fatty acid that contains both hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups in the same PET structure, says Chris Matayabas, project manager at Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn. When the nanometer-thick plates, which have aspect ratios above 200:1, are delaminated and stacked like sheets in a polymer matrix, they create a "tortuous path" for gas molecules that reduces oxygen permeability Oxygen permeability, abbreviated Dk, is a parameter of a contact lens. Another parameter, the transmissibility level, abbreviated DK/t; the Dk per thickness of the lens, is generally more used. Typical values are from 25 to 50. to about 2.66 cc-mil/100-sq-in-day-atm from about 11.33 for unfilled PET. Only 10% nanoclay is needed to achieve this effect. Just 1-3% by weight of nanoclay in the nylon middle layer of a 29-g, PET/nylon/PET bottle reduces oxygen transmission to as little as 2 microliters/day from 30 microliters for PET alone. Haze range is about 3-15%, satisfactory for amber bottles but perhaps not for clear ones, says Matayabas. Eastman is developing the technology with clay supplier Nanocor Inc., Arlington Heights Arlington Heights, village (1990 pop. 75,460), Cook county, NE Ill., a residential suburb of Chicago; founded 1836, inc. 1887. Its manufactures include machinery, drugs and medical equipment, and metal fabrication. Arlington Park racetrack is there. , Md. Super-heat-set PET New heat-setting technology is said to make PET suitable for "super-hot-fill" applications that expose the bottle to at least 203 F for 5 min. Krupp Corpoplast in Germany (U.S. office in Branchburg, N.J.), says its new MonoTherm process raises PET's crystallinity to 39-42%, thus elevating heat resistance to nearly 248 F while also reducing residual stresses. The resulting bottle can withstand super-hot filling of fruit juice, teas, and coffees. MonoTherm bottles can also survive beer pasteurization pasteurization (păs'ch  rĭzā`shən, -rīzā`shən), partial sterilization of liquids such as milk, orange juice, wine, and beer, as well as cheese, to destroy without the need for
molded-in panels and ribs for stiffening stiff·en tr. & intr.v. stiff·ened, stiff·en·ing, stiff·ens To make or become stiff or stiffer. stiff . Normal stretch-blowing usually raises PET's crystallinity to 20% and the heat resistance to around 185 F. That's enough for pasteurization, except for beer, due to its carbonation pressure, unless the bottle has panels and ribs. MonoTherm takes bottle crystallinity further by using three fluid circuits in the mold to control bottle base, body, and neck temperatures at about 176, 284-320, and 68 F, respectively. High blowing pressure forces the bottle against the hot mold. Other process modifications are slower blowing, lower stretch ratio, and longer mold residence time with internal air cooling a. 1. In devices generating heat, such as gasoline-engine motor vehicles, the cooling of the device by increasing its radiating surface by means of ribs or radiators, and placing it so that it is exposed to a current of air. Cf. Water cooling. of the bottle. Corpoplast reports shrinkage of less than 0.5% for a 0.5L MonoTherm bottle hot-filled at 203 F with 3-psi internal pressure. Production rate is 900 bottles/hr/mold.
Barrier Bottle Cast Comparison
Total Manufacturing Costs of
0.5L PET Barrier Bottle
$/Thousand
Monolayer $52.95
Five Layer $71.42
Three Layer #1 $66.02
Three Layer #2 $78.38
Interior Coating $81.87
Exterior Coating $64.67
(Source: Summit International LLC)
What is the least expensive way to make a 0.5L PET barrier bottle? Summit International LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , Smyrna, Ga., which specializes in preform and container development and market research, compared the manufacturing costs of five different barrier technologies against a standard monolayer PET bottle. Summit looked at three-layer, five-layer, and at internally and externally coated containers, all of them reheat Re`heat´ v. t. 1. To heat again. 2. To revive; to cheer; to cherish. Verb 1. reheat - heat again; "Please reheat the food from last night" stretch-blow molded. It found the bottle with an external coating to be least costly, while the internally coated bottle was the most expensive. The firm compared a five-layer structure with an oxygen-scavenger material, a three-layer bottle with a $2.50/lb barrier material, and a second three-layer structure with a $6/lb barrier. Also compared were a battle coated inside using Sidel's new Actis plasma-technology (see PT, June '99, p. 22) and a bottle coated on the outside. Capital investment (preform and bottle machines, utilities, downstream equipment, quality control, spare parts, and installation) for producing 20,000 bottles/hr is $10.8 million for the five-layer bottle, $9.9 million for both three-layer structures, $9.2 million for internal coating, $7.5 for external coating, and $6.8 million with no barrier. Direct manufacturing cost per 1000 (materials, energy, labor, maintenance, and scrap) amounts to $66.57 for three layers with the expensive barrier, $59.35 for five layers, $55.34 for the external coating, $54.63 for three layers with the low-cost barrier, $46.90 for internal coating, and $44.63 without barrier. New Barrier Coat For Juice Bottles A new barrier coating for PET fruit-juice bottles is being used in its first commercial applications. Bairocade epoxy-amine coating was originally developed by PPG Industries Inc., Pittsburgh, for carbonated soft-drink and beer bottles. The newer coating is being used by Graham Packaging Co. LLC, York, Pa., in two single-serve juice bottles. Northland north·land also North·land n. A region in the north of a country or an area. north  land Cranberries, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., uses a 16-oz size. Old
Orchard Brands Old Orchard Brands, LLC is a small, privately owned juice company, located in Sparta, Michigan. The company began in 1985, as a producer of apple juice. The company began by selling predominantly apple-based frozen juice concentrates, and has since expanded its product line to include of Sparta, Mich., uses a 20-oz bottle.Bairocade coating reportedly enhances shelf life up to 300%. The coating is applied to the bottle exterior with an electrostatic spray and then cured in an infrared oven, yielding a glossy finish that resists scuffing and reduces haziness. Coated bottles can be recycled, says PPG PPG Points Per Game (basketball player statistic) PPG Power Play Goals (hockey) PPG Planning Policy Guidance (UK) PPG Programmable Pulse Generator PPG Power Puff Girls . |
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