Plastic packaging producer Amcor Rigid Plastics has developed the new 64oz hot fill polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle for juices and teas.
The new lightest stock container uses novel design, tooling and process technologies to cut 9g, or 13.2% from the 68g PET bottle and delivers major sustainability benefits.
Amcor's Innovation Group has developed Powerblock 3.0 technology to provide a lightweight hot-fill stock PET bottle with better filling and stacking performance.
The hot fill container also has a 38mm lightweight finish which saves material compared to the standard 43mm finish for 64oz PET bottles.
Amcor principal engineer Michael Lane said the company achieved a sustainable packaging solution without compromising performance with its Powerblock container.
"Our unique lightweight design retained line/stack handling performance and maintained ergonomic features for consumer handling," Lane said.
Powerblock 3.0, which will also be adapted to other hot-fill bottles, provides various advantages including multiple fill contact points and flat sides for added stability; optimized footprint for improved pallet pattern and corrugate savings.
Advantages also include sustainability benefits including a reduced carbon footprint and transportation costs; and secure consumer handling with three intuitive areas for single-hand pouring.
A number of virtual modeling techniques were used by the company to predict key performance parameters such as quantified hot-fill characteristics and warehouse stack performance.
