Effect of Label Panel Creep Pet Bottle
Effect of Label Panel Creep Pet Bottle
Effect of Label Panel Creep Pet Bottle
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Contents 1 Executive summary 2 Project scope 3 Lightweighting two litre bottles 4 Lightweighting 500ml bottles 5 Benefit analysis 6 Overall conclusions 7 Appendices 3 5 8 11 14 16 17
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1 Executive summary
This project was initiated by Esterform Packaging, with the support of WRAPs Innovation Fund, to develop innovative packaging that could reduce household packaging waste originating from the retail sector. While the rate of recovery of bottles is improving rapidly from a low base, reducing the weight of beverage packaging provides a further powerful way of conserving materials, reducing packaging weight and reducing the energy used in production and transport. The cost savings involved also provide an incentive to invest in the new tooling needed to produce the lighter bottles. This project makes use of recent improvements in blow moulding technology, resin technology and preform design as a means of further reducing the weight of PET bottles made in the UK. Two bottles were selected for their potential to become optimum packaging weight examples for the beverage market: a 500ml Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD) bottle for Radnor Hills. This bottle was initially 25g, and it has been successfully redesigned and produced at the target weight of 20g; and a two litre CSD bottle for a major CSD manufacturer. This bottle was initially 42g, and was successfully redesigned at the target weight of 40g. The reduction in packaging weight achieved directly through this project was 250 tonnes of PET per annum, which is equivalent to the elimination of 8.3 million (30g) bottles from the waste stream.
If the new designs were adopted throughout the UK beverage market for these bottle sizes, the savings of PET being used would be 3,400 tonnes, which is equivalent to 113 million 30g bottles. The weight savings also lead to energy savings during processing. For Esterform Packaging the new preform designs could deliver annual energy savings of over 200MWhr. Energy savings of over 2,810MWhr would be achieved if the two new designs were adopted across the UK beverage industry. The development of the new preforms has led to applications beyond those that were originally intended, extending the weight savings achieved and delivering even greater environmental benefits. This validates the approach adopted in this project, as well as showing the value of disseminating the improved efficiencies throughout the UK beverage industry.
Contents
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5. Benefit analysis
5.1 Energy, carbon and CO2 emissions savings of new preforms designs 5.2 Cost benefit analysis 5.3 Overall benefit analysis
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2 Project scope
2.1
Background
This project was developed with the support of WRAPs Innovation Fund, to develop and trial innovative packaging that will reduce household packaging waste originating from the retail sector. According to WRAPs 2006 UK Plastic bottle recycling survey, the total quantity of plastic bottles entering the UK household waste stream is approximately 510,000 tonnes per annum, with an estimated 85,000 tonnes of bottles collected by the end of 2005. This represents a recycling rate of 17%, and is equivalent to 2,125 million plastic bottles . If the same approach were applied to the whole of the beverage market, a 10% weight reduction would result in savings of 19,000 tonnes, which would be equivalent to removing more than 570 million bottles (with an average weight of 30g each) from the waste stream. While the rate of recovery of bottles is improving rapidly from a low base, the approach of lightweighting beverage packaging originating from the retail sector provides a further powerful way to minimise waste at source, and reduce raw material processing and distribution costs. This is because it provides an economic incentive to make the necessary changes to the bottles, provided it is technically feasible to do so. If a weight reduction feasibility study is successful then new tooling would be required, which, while initially expensive, can be amortised over a number of years to recoup the capital outlay. Since virgin PET costs approximately 800 per tonne, each reduction of 100 tonnes would represent a saving of 80,000. The opportunity to reduce the weight of two bottles beyond current levels has been made possible by exploiting recent improvements that have occurred in blow moulding technology, resin technology and preform design.
2.2
The key steps taken in the project were: the re-design of the preforms using the latest techniques available to the PET industry and Esterform Packaging; the manufacture and testing of the new designs in conjunction with preform machine suppliers, blowmoulding machine suppliers and beverage fillers; and testing of the new designs in short- and long-term performance tests and filling trials.
2.3
Timescales
The project was begun in May 2005, and completed at the end of May 2006.
2.4
Project partners
The project was initiated by Esterform Packaging with the collaboration of two of their customers. Technical expertise was provided by Husky, SIG and Sidel, key providers of world-class PET moulding and processing technology. The project was managed by Nextek Limited. The key partners and contacts are shown in Table 1.
Role Leading organisation, preform manufacturer and bottle supplier Project management
Radnor Hills Mineral Water Bottle filler Co. CSD manufacturer Husky Injection Moulding systems (UK) Ltd Sidel SIG Krones Bottle filler Preform design and supply Preform design and blow moulding Preform design and blow moulding Preform design and blow moulding
Stephen Martin Colin Farrant Bill Farrant Karl Hopkins Table 1 Project partners
2.5
Project methodology
The weight of PET bottles is determined predominantly by the bottle performance requirements and specification of the neck and base. The neck design is influenced by handling requirements, and the closure style used. Different neck finishes can have different weights associated with design features. The design and weight of the base is related to the requirement to withstand the internal pressure of a carbonated product. Hence still water bottles can be lighter than carbonated beverage bottles. The mid-section body of the bottle was the focus for manipulation of design for lightweighting in this project, since the design of the neck and base was unchanged. This lightweighting would be achieved by gaining better material distribution during the blow moulding steps, by exploiting new developments in PET resin (energyabsorbing additives) and improvements in preform heating in blow moulding machines. Esterform Packaging anticipated being able to lightweight the samples of the 500ml bottle from 25g to 22g and possibly 20g (the lightest bottle in Europe is currently 22g. In the UK the 500ml bottles are typically 23-25g). The target for the two litre bottle was a reduction from 42g to 40g. Currently two litre bottles are 41.5- 42g. The project was carried out in the manner described in the bullet points, in order to achieve the best technical result in the shortest time: development of a process checklist; development of new designs via a Computer Aided Design (CAD)system; adaptation of the preform designs to suit bottle and blowing machinery; resolution of any nesting issues though preform redesign via CAD simulation; feedback from machinery companies, Krones, SIG and Husky, received and used in the designs; quotations requested for preforms from Husky; moulds, and/or core pins manufactured by Husky; preforms for use in trials manufactured by Husky; bottles blown and tested by Esterform Packaging; line trials conducted at the laboratories of Esterform Packaging and fillers; approval testing conducted by the filler companies; and successful new designs were to be commercialised by Esterform Packaging for supply to the fillers.
2.6
Manufacturing considerations
Light may affect some ingredients; high storage temperatures would force CO2 out of solution into headspace, making drink fizzy on opening; would also soften bottle.
Diffusion of gases depends on their relative concentrations, so more oxygen outside means it will diffuse inwards, as PET is permeable. One volume is about 2gL-1, pressure per vol is about 1 atmosphere (pressure at sea level, 15C, is 101325 kPa).
Possible effects of light and temperature on bottle and drink. Oxygen will diffuse inwards- may oxidise some flavours.
Labels put on after filling, stretch/heat shrunk to fit; any label adhesive and label ink must not migrate Plastic screw cap through the plastic and with tamper-evidence taint the drink. ring attached.
CO2 loss through bottle wall, about 0.04 volumes per week. About 0.3 volumes of CO2 absorbed in bottle wall in first 3-4 days. Up to 1% water may evaporate through bottle wall over shelf life. Identification symbol. Petalloid base so PET is the only plastic used, easier for recycling.
2L bottle (CO2 content 4 volumes or 8 g L -1) product ageing through oxidation and/or acid hydrolysis or flavour oils
Creep expansion (about 2.5%) in first 3-4 days, plus elastic deformation from internal pressure. These affect choice of labels. Odours from the environment could taint product. Depending on the product, up to 5% flavours may diffuse through bottle wall, and/or be absorbed by the plastic. Components of plastic or materials used in manufacture may migrate into drink (e.g. minute, harmless traces of acetaldehyde, PET oligomer). Bottles made thin for least material (a 2 L bottle is <40g), relies on internal pressure for rigidity. Must be stored away from odours.
Maximum shelf-life of 16-17 weeks before loss of CO2 is significant. Allowed for when filling.
PET bottles can be recycled, but only with the same plastic; recycled PET can be used in a middle layer between layers of new PET.
1 PET
A PET preform is first stretched downwards (1), then blown outwards (2), i.e. biaxial, before it cools; gives more strength and better barrier properties. 2 2
PET bottles are stretch-blow moulded from an injection-moulded preform. Varying wall thickness to give even wall thickness in blown bottle.
All materials leach some components into their contents, the quantity affected by reactions with the contents, but well within safe limits.
Larger PET bottles (e.g. 5 L) have a smaller surface area to volume ratio and lose a smaller proportion of CO2 and other volatile ingredients than do smaller bottles.
PET bottles are lighter and much less liable to breakage than glass bottles, use less energy for transportation.
Glass bottles would be considered for many similar applications; glass is impermeable, commonly used in 350 mL to 1.5 L sizes, with 2 L glass bottles considered the maximum size for easy and safe handling.
Preform design
The size, shape and surface features, as well as bottle performance requirements of the final bottle shape, determine the shape of a preform. Structural designers use well-known expansion ratios, since a controlled amount of stretching at controlled temperatures determines the physical performance of the bottles. The standard preform used for two litre bottles at a major CSD manufacturer has been 42g for a number of years. This preform has already been optimised and reduced in weight from 44g, and the success of further reduction was not immediately assured. For this reason the project team decided to assess the performance of a 41g preform as well as a 40g preform. The design team developed the new designs through an iterative process, first looking at ways to improve the design to meet the bottle performance requirements by minimising the weight of the relevant neck, mid-section and base parts of the bottle and contracting these into the design of the preform. The preform was then redesigned to meet the heating and expansion requirements for creating the final bottle shape. The new design was then analysed and modified by the machinery specialists from Husky, Sidel, SIG and Krones for ease of moulding and blow moulding. CAD simulation was used to detect and then avoid potential problems such as preform nesting. This process was repeated once the final design was arrived at, to ensure that it represented the best possible design for the target lightweight bottle. The technical project team at Esterform Packaging developed the designs for lightweighted bottles as shown in drawings in Appendix 7.2 An order was placed with Husky to manufacture new moulds, and to mould 5,000 preforms of each design. The blow moulding of the preforms into bottles and the testing of lightweight bottles was carried out at Esterform Packaging. Burst pressure, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) retention creep behaviour tests, blowing trials, and conveying and filling level tests were all carried out. Appendix 7.1 provides a simple diagram of the injection blow moulding process.
*Nesting = the base of one preform locating in the opening of another preform during manufacture and/or distribution. Can effect production efficiencies.
3.3
3.5
Line trials
The initial on-line testing of the two litre bottles was carried out on a small scale and completed with satisfactory results for filling, capping and labelling performance. More extensive trials were planned using preforms in four different weights. Esterform Packaging moulded a further 80,000 preforms to be used in extensive online trials to validate the performance of the lighter preforms. Esterform Packaging made 40,000 additional WRAP preforms, i.e. 20,000 each of the 41g and 40g preforms. In addition, Esterform Packaging modified another preform tool by making new cores, to bring the weight of the preforms to 41.5g and 40g. They made 40,000 preforms, i.e. 20,000 of each of the 41.5g and 40g preforms. This step was taken to investigate whether the tooling costs for lightweighting could be reduced. These preforms were run and then tested for line performance as well as for the creep behaviour of the four types of preforms over a further three months. This large scale trial shows that the two companies are seriously considering ways of turning into commercial reality the potential revealed by the initial test results.
3.6
Figure 3 1.5 litre bottle made using 40g preform instead of 44g preform
44g
40g
Preform design
The typical weight of 500ml bottles in UK is 23g to 25g. Esterform Packaging currently uses 25g preforms, and they anticipated being able to lightweight the 500ml bottle to 22g and possibly 20g. The size, shape and surface features of the final bottle determine the shape of a preform. Designers use wellknown expansion ratios, since a controlled amount of stretching at controlled temperatures determines the physical performance of the bottles. Since the design of the neck is determined by the closure specification, the redesign of the preform to deliver a reduction in weight may result in a preform diameter that is less than the diameter of the neck opening. This situation can lead to nesting of the performs, which can lead to difficulties in unscrambling the preforms as they go from the storage bins into the blow moulding machines. CAD simulation predicted that this could have been the situation with the two lightweighting designs, though the dimensions were changed (i.e. the diameter was increased and the length reduced compared to the ideal guidelines) to avoid this possibility. The preforms were still within the typical design guidelines used to predict axial and longitudinal expansion, in order to achieve acceptable physical properties. The preform designs for the 22g and 20g preforms are shown in Appendix 7.3.
4.2
Figure 4 22g 25g 20g Standard 25g and lightweight 22g and 20g preforms
Blow moulding trial for 20g and 22g preforms for 500ml bottles
The trial of the 20g and 22g preforms was carried out at Esterform Packaging using four-foot and five-foot petaloid bases, and they were compared to the standard 25g bottle. The two base designs can both be used for carbonated bottles, and historically the four-footed base has been the standard and accepted design. The five-footed base provides better material distribution and hence a stronger and also more stable base for the bottle that is less distorted by carbonation pressures. The differences between the preform designs are shown in Figure 4. The redesign of the preforms has resulted in a preform that is shorter but larger in diameter, to avoid nesting problems that would occur if the external diameter were reduced in the lightweighting process. The shape of the bottles is shown in the CAD images in Figure 5. The four variants and the standard moulded bottles are shown in Figures 6 and 7.
20g 4 foot 20g 5 foot 22g 4 foot 22g 5 foot 25g 4 foot
Figure 5 4 foot bottle 5 foot bottle CAD images of the different base designs
Figure 6 End view of 20g and 22g bottles with four- and fivefooted bases, along with the 25g standard bottle
Figure 7 20g and 22g bottles with four- and five-footed bases, along with the 25g standard bottle
4.3
Base weight (g) specimen 1 2 Mean 20g 4ft 4.3 4.1 4.2 20g 5ft 4.3 4.3 4.3 22g 4ft 5.0 5.1 5.1 22g 5ft 5.1 5.1 5.1 20g 4ft 5.7 5.7 5.7
Panel weight (g) 20g 5ft 5.6 5.6 5.6 22g 4ft 6.6 6.6 6.6 22g 5ft 6.6 6.5 6.6 20g 4ft 152 154 153
Burst test (psi) 20g 5ft 148 154 151 22g 4ft 199 199 1 Table 3 Properties of 20g and 22g bottles in four- and five-foot variations. 22g 5ft 196 200 18
4.4
4.7
Stability tests
The performance of the 20g and 22g bottles was tested for stability under pressurised conditions. The results are shown in Appendix 7.4. The key findings are: the four-foot existing 25g bottle is stable at all pressures; the five-foot petaloid 20g and 22g bottles remained stable at all pressures; the four-foot bottle at 22g started losing stability at 60psi, but was still relatively good at 75psi; the four-foot bottle at 20g started losing stability at 40psi, and was considered very bad at 60psi; the use of the five-footed preform improved the material base distribution; and the material distribution near the neck was not as good as was desired, potentially indicating a need to redesign the preform.
4.5
Figure 8 Different bottle styles that could potentially use the 500ml, 20g preform.
5 Benefit analysis
5.1
Energy savings for 30 million 500ml bottles @ 5g reduction Energy savings for 50 million 2 litre bottles @ 2g reduction Total savings for Esterform (80 million bottles)
Energy savings for 80 million 500ml bottles @ 5g reduction Energy savings for 1500 million 2 litre bottles @ 2g reduction Total savings for UK (1,580 million bottles )
2
Overview: Energy and carbon saving using the lightweight preform, based on data provided by Husky, plus associated CO2 and carbon emissions calculations Annual energy consumption for a three-bed household in UK Total annual energy saving for Esterform Equivalent number of three-bed housholds Total annual energy saving for UK Equivalent number of three-bed housholds Energy saving per 100 tonnes equivalent to number of households 4,000 kWh 206,667 kWh 52 2,810,780 kWh 703 21 Table 5 Energy saving expressed in household energy consumption per year
1 Source: University of Strathclyde, http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/web_site/01-02RE_info/hec.htm 2 =3,400 tonnes of PET
5.2
Assumptions: Volume of 500ml bottles would double from existing 80 tonnes p.a. to 160 tonnes p.a. Table 6 Simple assessment of material cost saving opportunity by moving to the lighter weight preform.
5.3
Benefit analysis if lightweighting on these bottle sizes was replicated across the sector
The Esterform Packaging project clearly demonstrates that a move to lighter weight preforms brings with it benefits in terms of material savings, energy savings and carbon emissions. If this lightweighting on these bottle sizes was replicated across the whole carbonated soft drinks sector, the savings can be seen in Table 7. Per million 500ml PET bottles (using 20g rather than 25g preforms) PET weight saving PET material cost savings Carbon emission savings Energy savings 5 tonnes 4,000 0.41 tonnes 4,133 kWh Per million 2 litre PET bottles (using 40g rather than 42g preforms) 2 tonnes 1,600
0.10 tonnes
For the UKs 1,580 million PET bottles (500ml and 2 litre bottle sizes combined) 3,400 tonnes 2,720,000
276 tonnes
1,653 kWh
6 Overall conclusions
The approach taken in this project has been successful due to the latest advances in PET technology being applied to the two bottles selected. The lightweight 20g and 40g designs are currently meeting the key success criteria set by the current bottle specifications at both Esterform Packaging and the fillers plants. New applications for the 40g and 20g preforms have been blown and are also being considered by customers beyond the initial scope of the project. It is expected that this approach will lead to significantly larger weight savings in PET than originally anticipated. This project has delivered additional benefits in savings in the costs of materials and energy input, thereby delivering multiple environmental benefits. This strongly validates the approach used in this project, also highlighting the value in disseminating the improved efficiencies throughout the UK beverage industry.
7 Appendices
7.1
Neck Ring
Neck Ring
Neck Ring
Injection Cavity
Blow Air
Blow Air
Blow Air
Hotrunner
Blow Air
Bottom Plug
7.2
7.3
7.4
Pressure and dimensional stability tests on the 20g, 22g and 25g bottles
Preforms conforming to drawings (20g) E774-P-05 - (22g) E795-P-02 Bottles conforming to drawings (four-foot) A242-B-04-3 - (five-foot) E803-B-01 Test Temperature of water 27.5 deg C
Effect of pressure on diameter diameter Bottle weight/style 20g five-foot 20g four-foot 22g five-foot 22g four-foot Existing 25g four-foot 0psi 63 63 63 63 63 diameter 50psi 64.1 64.3 63.7 63.9 63.4 diameter 75psi 65.6 66.1 64.3 64.8 63.6
Base clearance mm at 0psi 20g five-foot 20g four-foot 22g five-foot 22g four-foot Existing 25g four-foot 5.4 5.36 5.84 5.85 5 mm at 50psi 3.4 3.4 3.8 3.8 3.85 mm at 75psi 2.9 2.75 3.38 3.2 3.5
Base performance The five-foot petaloid 20g and 22g remained stable at all pressures. The four-foot at 20g started losing stability at 40psi, and was very bad at 60psi. The four-foot at 22g started losing stability at 60psi, and was still relatively good at 75psi. The existing four-foot bottle at 25g is stable at all pressures.
7.5
7.6
Bottle variations tested with 20g preforms 500ml standard Petaloid bottle, drawing A242-B-04-3.
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