Karel Keersmaekers-Michiels, MD for Germany, explained that when looking at sustainability, it’s important to have the waste hierarchy in mind. ‘From top to bottom it moves from reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery to disposal. With this in mind, ASB would like to present four sustainable PET moulding solutions to the packaging market.’
The four solutions are the bag-in-box bottle production on the PF36/9-12000, returnable/refillable PET bottles production on the HSB-4N, preform production with Zero Cooling on the PM100/111N, and unique containers produced on the ASB-12M/2INJ.
According to Karel, the bag-in-box market is growing since it’s recyclable, sustainable and lightweight. ‘After the 12-litre bottle is used, it can easily be compressed. The bottle is also very lightweight; at 120g it uses 50% less material when having to use a 500ml or 1.5-litre bottles to make up 12-litres. Therefore, using the 12-litre bottle saves a 1 320 tons of PET/year on an annual production of 130-million litres.’
The output of the PF36-9/12000 is 1 500 bottles/hour, with a nine-cavity preform mould and three-cavity blow mould. ‘That is triple the productivity compared to the ASB-150DP,’ he noted.
The company believes that returnable/refillable PET bottles are the most sustainable beverage packaging solution. According to Karel, RefPET bottles produced on ASB’s double blow technology offer high heat resistance (volume shrinkage after 25 washing cycles is below 1%), high quality, significant weight reduction (10%), recycled PET content can also be incorporated.
‘On the HSB-4N, the 1-litre bottle can be produced at 3 000 bottles/hour at a cycle time of 4.8 seconds. With a minimum washing cycle of 25 and a weight of only 50g, there’s an 80% reduction of material use which equates to 9 000 tons of PET/year on an annual production of 20-million litres.’
The PM100/111N-ZC machine’s injection cycle is the longest part of the cycle and the Zero Cooling, ASB’s advance in preform cooling technology, ensures cooling time is reduced to the absolute minimum. ‘Cycle reductions of 25% to 40% are possible,’ he asserted.
With the last solution, ASB-12M/2INJ, applications range from sustainable and functional to a premium glass-like decoration. The sustainable application comes with an inner layer of 30% virgin PET and an outer layer of 70% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content. ‘Beautiful effects can even be created by using different colours for the two layers,’ Karel stated.
For a luxury aesthetic brand image, decorations can range from an elegant gradation effect to vertical stripes moulded in any desirable pattern with various materials and colours.”
Glass-like provides a premium appearance with a base thickness of 11mm or more. Decoration can range from vertical stripes moulded in any desirable pattern with various materials and colours or an elegant gradation effect directly from the mould, which provide a luxury aesthetic brand image.
With functional, a translucent stripe can be added from top to bottom for viewing and level gauging of the content. For sensitive cosmetic packaging, such as mascara, the PET/PP combination works perfectly as PP is a good moisture barrier. For certain products to avoid oxidation, an inner layer that collapses as content is dispensed is the ideal solution.
‘With Nissei ASB’s environment-conscious machinery and moulding technologies providing these sustainable packaging solutions, it’s important for us to continue developing and providing the market with even better solutions in the future,’ he concluded.
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