World's lightest PET beer bottle hits mass production.

The glass beer bottle has met its match. At. least that's the claim being made for a monolayer, 0.5-liter barrier PET bottle designed for a brew from Martens of Belgium. The beer bottle was designed by Sidel in Le Havre, France, which also supplied the barrier-coating technology and stretch-blow equipment used to manufacture the containers.

Sidel claims the Martens bottle proves that PET can be competitive with glass in cost and barrier performance. Sidel says that beer in the PET bottles has a six-month shelf life, thanks to the Actis plasma-deposition system. It deposits a 150-nanometer-thick carbon layer inside the bottle, adding just 0.03% to its weight without affecting recyclability.

The bottle's economics are partly a factor of its light weight--only 28 g--which Sidel calls a "world record" in weight reduction for the 0.5L size. Another economic factor is mass production. In August, a new dedicated plant was opened a few miles from Martens' brewery in Bocholt, Belgium. It has one of Sidel's SBO 20 (20-cavity) reheat stretch-blow machines and two Actis coating systems. Operating 24/7, the plant produces 10 million bottles a month, or 120 million/yr. Addition of a third Actis machine late this year will raise capacity to 180 million/yr. Sidel says this is the world's largest beer packaging operation using barrier PET bottles.