There have been dozens of lightweighting initiatives in the past few years, dramatically reducing wall thickness and neck heights. In preform production and bottle blowing, huge energy savings have also been achieved. What’s next? Can bottles really become any lighter, and can production become even more energy efficient? How does Husky see the future?
Craig Reynolds: While there have been significant advancements in lightweighting and energy efficiency over the past few years, Husky believes there is still a lot of runway in terms of making bottles even lighter and production even more energy efficient. This is evidenced by the fact that there’s currently a wide range of weights for very similar applications out in the market; not everyone is caught up yet, nor is there a clear ‘best way’.
That said, within PET packaging, water bottles and water packaging tend to be further along the curve and more advanced in terms of lightweighting and advancements in manufacturing efficiencies.
Other categories such as hot-fill haven’t yet seen the same levels of lightweighting and advancements, so there tends to be more opportunity in these categories for ‘bigger’ improvements.
As with any product or process that moves into a more mature phase, injection moulding equipment manufacturers will have to work harder to continue finding ways of making PET water bottles lighter and production more efficient. Just as in preform production, in terms of the complete bottle production and filling cycle, there are still significant opportunities to create greater efficiencies in the blowing and filling processes as well.
In terms of energy efficiency, it’s important to look at total energy usage and not only the energy used in the manufacture of the preform. HyPET systems have achieved significant savings in energy usage compared to older generations of equipment through more efficient components like pumps, motors and drives.
On top of that, the savings in the lightweighting of a bottle for example, carry over and save energy too. A lighter preform design means not only a savings in the energy needed to produce the preform, since you have to melt and inject less plastic, but also a savings in the energy needed to make the actual resin in the first place and reheat the preform in the blow moulder.
Husky’s commitment to lightweighting and energy efficiency is demonstrated in the recent release of our HyPET HPP system which was designed specifically to provide advanced levels of lightweighting and energy efficiency.
Some of the components geared specifically towards energy efficiency include a new hot runner that uses less heat, insulated barrel, electric drive on the extruder and less compressed air usage by the system. Beyond that, Husky has other technologies currently being tested in our validation lab that will take things even further with lightweighting and energy efficiency.
Many brand owners are pushing for greater and greater proportions of recycled PET in their bottles, while others are choosing to move over to plant-based PET. What challenges are faced using these new polymers and where does Husky see the future for rPET?
Craig Reynolds: Husky is a strong believer in the use of recycled flake in the manufacture of PET and is committed to doing its part in helping make preform manufacturing as efficient and environmentally responsible as possible.
Husky’s HyPET RF system was developed specifically to allow perform manufacturers to use a greater percentage of recycled flake in preform production without sacrificing quality.
Regarding the trend of brand owners pushing for an increased use of recycled PET and plant-based PET, as mentioned, Husky is a strong advocate of both. One benefit of plant-based PET over other biopolymers is that plant-based PET actually behaves in the same manner as PET sourced from petrochemicals, meaning brand owners aren’t forced to choose between plant-based PET or recycled PET. They can actually do both.
If we want to look at the trend of using recycled PET as a whole, the biggest challenge is actually not related to the manufacturing, but instead in the collection of recycled material in some markets.
While recycling rates in Europe are strong, rates in the US are quite low and getting consumers onboard with recycling PET, which provides manufacturers with the necessary recycled flake, is one of the biggest challenges that faces the industry today.
That said, as consumer pressure mounts and buy-in with regard to recycling programmes increases, the use of recycled PET will continue to grow and be viewed as one of the top means for converters and brand owners to become more environmentally sustainable.
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