Sidel launches new 100% rPET bottle for carbonated soft drinks
Sidel launched StarLITE R, a 100% rPET bottle, for carbonated soft drink (CSD). The new StarLITE family allows CSD producers to switch to rPET bottle production with ease and efficiency while significantly reduce the impact on product quality or packaging integrity.
Tackling challenges for CSD bottle manufacturing
CSD bottle manufacturing faces challenges including stress cracking, roll out and bursting during blowing. Additionally, higher temperature is also required to process rPET. Traditionally, greater variability in rPET resin means a narrower process window and lower bottle quality.
With Sidel’s innovative base, StarLITE R uses leading technologies to ensure efficient rPET bottle production by restoring a much wider process window. The StarLITE R design is easier to blow as it can be done within a wider range of parameter settings on the blower achieving a much higher quality bottle.
Sidel’s new bottle solution for CSD with 100% rPET.
High performance rPET bottle base
To achieve high performance of rPET bottle base, the new material features an optimized mold base profile and uses an advanced stretch rod end design.
New mold base profile allows for perfect material distribution through advanced stretching and a high base clearance for optimum stability. The advanced stretch rod end design improves the preform end-cap material stretching and ensures accurate injection gate centering on the bottle.
Additionally, perfect combination of grooves and venting holes allows for high-precision base feet formation.
The new solution also utilizes dual external and internal bottle base cooling to ensure a perfect shape. Externally, the process uses a mold base cooling circuit that focuses on the warmer bottle base zones and internally a hollow-stretch rod is used which requires no additional air supply.
Easy transition and carbon footprint reduction
The new bottle solution can be easily installed on existing production lines and adapted to current bottle designs. It is compatible with Sidel’s signature blow molders – EvoBLOW, Universal and Series 2 and suitable for high-speed productions.
According to lifecycle analysis, PET has been known as the best carbon footprint among all packaging materials currently available and is the only food-grade, bottle-to-bottle plastic resin. With full circularity at scale, rPET can be an even more sustainable choice as its environmental impact reduces up to four times compared to the virgin material.
