Container wall barrier

Plastic containers play an important role in beverage packaging and have replaced glass and metal containers in recent years. However, plastic containers are not without their drawbacks, and the most important issue to solve is barrier properties. Now, a double injection molding process can place the barrier layer in the middle of the container wall and prevent peeling.

Beer, juice, and hot-filled tea beverages are all sensitive to oxygen. Many types of barrier materials are now available on the market. They do not reduce oxygen permeation, but rather absorb oxygen to prevent it from coming into contact with the beverage, giving the container glass-like properties. For a small carbonated beverage bottle, since the ratio of the volume of beverage (volume surface area) actually in contact with the side wall of the bottle to the volume is large, the loss of carbon dioxide increases, thereby affecting the taste of the beverage. Compared to small containers (355 ml and 390 ml), this ratio is much lower for bulky containers (1.5 liters and 2.0 liters).

The resin industry has also responded to this. On the one hand, they specialize in the production of specialized materials for certain requirements, and on the other hand they also produce materials that are generally needed. For example, a small volume of carbonated beverage can use a variety of passive barrier materials. For beer, a combination of carbon dioxide barriers and oxygen accelerators can be used; fresh juices and teas only require materials that currently only contain oxygen accelerators on the market.

Co-injection technology as a process for producing PET multilayer containers can increase the barrier properties of the bottles.
However, a phenomenon known as "stratification" has affected the further application of this technology. Kortec Asia Ltd has developed "multi-layer" technology to provide a simple two-material, three-layer processing method. The PET co-injection device allows a bottle processing plant to add a blank between the preform walls. The layer is impervious to the barrier material, thereby reducing delamination of the finished container. In terms of efficacy, it reduces the penetration of carbon dioxide and oxygen through the blow-molded bottle wall to an acceptable level for various beverage markets, such as beer, fresh juice, hot-filled tea (mainly in the Japanese market), and even small Volume of carbonated soft drinks.

Now, companies such as PepsiCo and Anheuser Busch have commercialized Cotai's co-injection processing methods. Some of the company's high-end customers can even provide the world's only pasteurized PET beer bottle, further satisfying the needs of the beer market. In the beer market, more than 80% of the beer is pasteurized, such as Ball Corporation, Crown Cork & Seal, USA, and Zhuhai Zhongfu Group, China. Another major bottle processing plant in China has also begun to use Gaotai equipment. Both Chinese companies can produce this container for the beer market and strive to meet demand. There are nearly 90 billion beer containers in the Chinese market. This huge number is enough to drive anyone to become a pioneer in this industry.

Kotech's easy-to-use equipment allows the operator to control the amount of barriers in the optimum distribution, allowing the container to achieve the desired shelf life of the beverage supplier, and a single system can produce containers for all markets. Processing plant brings more flexibility.

In addition, the technology developed by Goldtech can be operated on a variety of cavities (from 4-chamber lab systems to 96-cavity production systems) and on multiple platforms (from 90 tons to 600 tons). Each platform can operate with the fastest single-layer PET cycle time available, further increasing the economic utility of devices such as the Kortec HG300 Tonne, 48 cavity system.

In addition, ensuring quality is an important task for operators today. Taking into account the need for customers to manufacture containers with a precise amount of barrier material, Goldtech invented a multilayer preform inspection system, abbreviated as MPIS. The system uses proven ultrasonic technology, which allows the user to accurately calculate the amount of barrier material and the shelf life of products sold to each beverage company or food company.