Blow Moulding
Blow by blow account of the industry Fuelled by increasing GDPs, the Asian markets present lucrative opportunities for the bottle market, which is also being “greened” through brand owners’ initiatives. Meanwhile, new BPA-free materials are being introduced as alternatives and machinery makers have upped the ante with higher output equipment.
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he global packaging industry is pegged to reach US$262.6 billion by 2015, says market research group Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA). Meanwhile, another research firm Freedonia Group reports that China, currently the world’s second largest packaging market with a value of US$76 billion in 2011, an increase by 7.2% from 2010, has already edged Japan out in terms of market size and will also outdo the US by 2020. The report also indicated that China’s growth rate in the plastic drink containers segment will slow down from 2010-2015, but it will still average a high 10.2% a year Overall, plastics will continue to account for the largest share of total sales, reaching nearly 223 billion units in 2015, competing against other packaging material choices such as paper board and glass, the report says. Nevertheless, PET bottles have remained a top-seller for non-alcoholic beverages. Materials making their rounds Chemical firm Borealis has introduced a PP grade that provides an alternative to polycarbonate, which has taken a beating in recent years due to the BPA scare, specially designed for cosmetic and baby bottles. Its next generation Borclear RC737MO grade is also taking transparency in extrusion blow moulded (EBM) PP bottles to new heights. Compared with standard products the haze value, an established indicator describing opacity, can be reduced by 25%. And when compared with metallocene grades, the resin is said to offer better surface scratch resistance. It can be processed by applying the usual settings for random PP grades, with barrel temperatures in the range of 190-220°C. Its higher melt strength enables easy regulation of wall thickness while the lower weight variations reduce the potential for breakages during transportation and use. Borealis latest PP grade is targeted at baby bottles
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In other news, Total Petrochemicals’s new HDPE grade for injection stretch blow moulding (ISBM) is attracting global interest for milk bottles and packaging for household industrial chemicals. ISBM allows for up to 20% lightweighting of HDPE bottles compared with extrusion blow moulding (EBM); lower haze, higher gloss and absence of weld lines or flash trimming. ISBM brings other benefits like the improved neck finish and higher machine productivity of up to 60,000 bottles/hour, which is comparable to PET output. Meanwhile, Solvay Advanced Polymers has launched a polyarylamide (MXD6 nylon) grade for blow moulded fuel tanks. Ixef BXT 2000-0203 is said to provide improved fuel barrier and chemical resistance. It can be processed on continuous-extrusion, accumulator-head, reciprocatingscrew and suction blow moulding machines. It can also be co-extruded with other nylons and polyolefins. It has a 6 MFR and specific gravity of 1.12. Brand owners push for sustainability The consumer market is all agog with compostable-based materials that industry giants, especially in the F&B sector, are using in their PET packaging to cater to the growing popularity for sustainability. Upfront in the race are Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, both neck-in-neck in the race to push further the frontier! The former introduced in 2009 its 30% plant-based PlantBottle (monoethylene glycol or MEG is made from sugarcanebased ethanol). Since then, it has already distributed more than 10 billion PlantBottles in 20 countries worldwide. Early last year, PepsiCo upped the ante with the introduction of a 100% plant-based “green” bottle, which unlike the one from its rival, features both biobased-sourced MEG and terephthalic acid (PTA) from materials like switch grass, pine bark and corn husk. Pilot production of the new bottle, said to look and feel like an existing PET bottle, is expected to start this year. Also in the same vein, later in the year, PepsiCo introduced what it says is the US’s first soft-drink bottle (7UP EcoGreen) made from 100% recycled PET (rPET). The company says “creating a bottle from 100% recycled plastic for soft drinks is more challenging than creating a bottle for non-carbonated beverages because of the stress on materials from carbonation pressure.” While PepsiCo has
Blow Moulding
Techne now a part of Graham Packaging, has introduced the Unika machine
Though the concept of integration is not at all new in the liquid packaging market, Techne Graham says its machine is the first to interface a high-speed blow moulder with a rotary filler and capper, including a quality control unit. Unika, which has an IML (in-mould labelling) feature, can also be applied in the edible oil, lubricant, detergent and body care product markets for 100 ml to 5 l containers. Elsewhere, Austrian company Greiner Packaging has developed an ISBM, in tandem with Mould & Matic. The preform is injection moulded on a vertical machine, and transported into the blowing station using a gripping mandrel. Upon completion, the products are unloaded
and stacked automatically. Christened Kavoblow 200/80R2, the machine is able to process PET, PP, PE, PS, and PA for producing containers in sizes from 5 ml to 5 l. Meanwhile, amongst the products Wilmington Machinery will be profiling at the upcoming April NPE show in the US, will be a large container rotary blow moulder. It is designed with calibrated neck for 3 gallon to 25 l tight drum and jerry can applications. The system is available with four or six cavities and is automated, including part handling and trimming. It is capable of speeds up to 475 containers/hour or 4 million containers/ year. â—†
Greiner’s Kavoblow 200/80-R2 machine