Filling and packaging systems manufacturer KHS has paved the way for smaller PET bottles with the launch of a new coating machine.
Designed to produce bottles with volumes ranging from 100ml to 350ml, the machine is called the Plasmax 20Q.
Beverage producers can now also process these smaller bottles economically with the help of a glass interior coating.
The coating helps reduce material costs and provides a longer shelf life for sensitive beverages.
To date, small bottle formats of up to 350 millilitres had a high volume-related gas permeability due to the adverse surface-to-volume ratio, resulting in a relatively short best-before date compared with glass bottles and cans.
The sister model, the KHS InnoPET Plasmax 20QS, is intended for bottle formats of up to 1.5 litres.
In comparison with the Plasmax 20Q, this system is able to achieve a 20 per cent higher output of up to 48,000 PET bottles per hour (or an output of 330 million bottles annually).
This adaptation makes operation with small bottle formats more economical, especially for formats with a maximum volume of 350 millilitres. The special advantage can be found in the reduced-volume coating chambers.
A wafer-thin interior coating of pure glass makes for a 30 per cent saving on materials and a reduction in PET processing costs.
Previously, material costs comprised an estimated 70 per cent of bottle production.
The advantages of the coating technology extend to point of sale, with the FreshSafe-PET logo drawing attention to preservative-free beverage production due to the interior glass coating.
The coating protects sensitive beverages such as juice, wine, beer, and carbonated beverages from loss of quality, and preserves the flavour and freshness of the product. It also allows complete recycling of the PET.
