What innovations and further developments are there in PET packaging? 150 participants found out at an innovation event organised by KHS Corpoplast at its Hamburg site. The in-house exhibition organised by the manufacturer of filling and packaging systems for the beverage, food and non-food industries focused on resource conservation and recycling.
In one of his last welcoming speeches as Chairman of the KHS Management Board before handing over to Kai Acker on 15 October, Burkhard Becker emphasised that the market for PET packaging continues to grow. In 2018, the proportion of all packaging was already 42 per cent and will increase again by 2022. Because the reuse of packaging is becoming increasingly important compared to single-use packaging, the Relevance of the packaging design for example, to remove the contents from the packaging as easily and completely as possible.
After various introductory presentations, KHS presented its In-house exhibition some new or further developed machines and systems. With the Smart-LineThe company presented easy-to-operate machines and concepts for the parallel filling of several products on one line, including simpler and faster format changeovers.
Internal glass coating process enables bottle-to-bottle recycling
Interest was aroused by the KHS FreshSafe PET coating process. This inner glass coating for PET bottles has been developed especially for juice and nectar bottlers. Until now, PET bottles in this sector have been difficult to recycle because they contain additives. The use of the KHS Plasmax internal glass coating now enables bottle-to-bottle recycling.
The now production-ready concept „InnoPET FormFill powered by LiquiForm“ was well received. Plastic containers are moulded and filled in just one step. According to KHS, this reduces the energy required for stretch blow moulding by up to 50 percent. Thanks to the compact machine design, the system also saves an additional 40 per cent of space.
For the service area, the „Bottles & Shapes“ was introduced. KHS advises its customers on the design, construction, optimisation and production of PET bottles, always with the aim of reducing weight by Material savings optimisation. Head of Service Dr Martin Koschmieder explained: „The production of 270 million 0.5-litre bottles of highly carbonated water per year and a reduction in weight from 12.5 to 9.9 grams results in cost savings of up to 770,000 euros.“
