Foreign PET R & D is surging

At a seminar titled "New Packaging for PET" held in Orlando, Florida, the participating experts launched new materials for barriers to PET prices, beer and food containers, air traps, and plastic container recycling. Use research on major issues.

The price trend of PET is positive According to the market analysis of Tecnon's Gratin, the phenomenon of oversupply in the PET market is expected to end in recent years, and will be replaced by the shortage of supply and price increase. Recently, due to inappropriate investment, several new plants are being formed. According to Gratin, the new plant will take 24 to 36 months from investment to completion, which will not affect the market price in 2002. On the other hand, as far as the supply side is concerned, as the unfavorable news shows, the outlook is not optimistic. However, the disclosure and application of many new technologies in the new packaging can convince people that even if the price rises, these new products will still have a good market.

Progress in Filling Technology Tekanat of the Schmalbach-lubeca Plastic Containers company introduced the hot-filling matching technology for low-temperature sterilization and high-temperature and high-pressure treatment of PET bottles. The container can be sterilized at a low temperature of 102°C in a tunnel type low-temperature sterilizer, and can withstand a sterilizing treatment at 121.1°C for 1 hour when sterilized at a high temperature and pressure. The cryogenic sterilizer bottles are designed with pressure and vacuum fins, while the retort bottles are equipped with ribs. Both bottles are bottled with a champagne type after crystallization. According to reports, the structure of PET in this system is adjusted between melting point and glass point, and it is predicted that the production of commodities can be realized within a few months.

Graham Packaging's Langdon reported 105 ounces of hot-filled PET containers. New containers for packaging various foods such as tomato sauce and apple juice were officially put into production and marketed in the second half of 2000. In addition, the company also developed a second-generation new container for apple sauce with the "TreeTop" high-level logo. The new bottle with a capacity of 2 pounds is a lightweight bottle with ribs marked "hand-held" on the side of the bottle to allow the consumer to manually remove the contents.

At the seminar, Japan's Toyo Tin Company introduced the "Big Cosmos" type stretch blow molding system for newly researched and developed 500 ml hot filled PET bottles. The PET bottles equipped with this system can be used to hold 65 °C. A warm bath at -75°C for 40 minutes in a sterilized product. The bottom and side walls of the bottle are not only lighter than ordinary extension bottles, but also increase the degree of crystallization during the manufacturing process and improve the heat resistance and pressure resistance. Toyo Tin can focus on developing the growing market for disposable bottles that will be used for the packaging of fruit juices and carbonated beverages.

Improve barrier properties At present, Bell is researching barrier bottles for foods such as beer, fruit juices, and carbonated drinks; Mitsubishi Gas Chemicals is studying MXD6 nylon; Evacka is researching ethylene-polyvinyl chloride

Enol copolymers; Amoco research barrier materials such as Amos. DuPont's Puro Casini introduced the Edge Packaging technology, which is 30 times the barrier of universal PET bottles. This is a two-layer coating system that can be recycled. The coating consists of a transparent clear layer and a colored layer. The detailed technique is not clear. Now it is applying for a patent. In the future, the fruit juice market will be sold.

Sochet and Moore of TetraPak reported two new technologies for improving the barrier properties of PET bottles. One of them is that the system called "seal coat" makes it barrier-free at the stage of blanking; the other system called "transparent inner layer" can keep the brown bottle barrier. At present, these two technologies have entered the stage of marketization. In the "seal coat" method, Dow Chemical's barrier material, Bloks, was used after the raw materials were extruded. In the "transparent inner layer" method, silicon oxide was used as the inner coat. According to reports, although the coating on the outside of the PET bottle is easy, the cost of the equipment is not high, but it is easy to cause post-damage; the advantage of adopting the inner coating is that there is a barrier layer between the coating and the content. The coating such as silicon oxide is uniform and the pressure resistance is good, but the process of coating in the bottle is complex and the production cost is also high.

Royal Cork and Sealing Company introduced an effective “star protection board” technology for oxygen sensitive products, which is a coating made of PPG's barrier material Bairocade and Oxbar's own gas trapping agent. Based on the application of multi-layer PET bottles produced by the KorTec coextrusion system. The advantage of the "star protection board" coating is that it can use existing plastic materials and molding equipment to produce PET plastic bottles with enhanced gas barrier properties.

The "Marolo Card" coating is one of the highest performance and lowest cost solutions. The solvent before hardening at low temperature can evaporate and the bottle does not shrink. In order to improve the adhesion to the bottle, electrostatic loading was performed during the processing. Product shelf life up to 40 days. The production company can also supply barrier seal cap production systems for PET bottles.

In order to prevent "delamination" of carbonated beverages and bottles such as tomato sauce, the company has developed new ethylene-vinyl chloride copolymer (eval) resins. Delamination is caused by weak adhesion between PET bottle barrier materials. The new XEP 567 resin alleviates the problem of sticking between PET/EVOH and prevents delamination without the use of adhesives.

The most important factor is the increase in the distribution of the extended rogue molding process. The company cooperated with Bell Company and used KORTET extrusion molding machines to research and develop new plastic bottles for the production of carbonated beverages and fruit juices. The advantage is that the loss of carbon dioxide is less than 14%, and the product shelf life is about 16 weeks.

Nelson of Eastman Chemical Co., Ltd. introduced nanocomposite nylon Imperm that improves the barrier properties of PET bottles. The uniformly dispersed clay body can prevent oxygen from penetrating into the bottle. The strength, rigidity and stability of the bottle are all good. Nano-composite PET bottles have 3 to 4 times more oxygen barrier than single-layer PET bottles. The new composite PET bottles not only increase the shelf life of packaging products, but also reduce the amount of nylon used in multilayer barrier bottles. According to reports, the color of PET bottles containing 10% clay is not affected.

Recycling In order to avoid conflicts with government regulations, companies are faced with the task of developing corporate standards for recycling. Barrier materials, oxygen traps, and amber dyes are all major problems in recycling. According to Mr. Kotchin of the Plastics Recycling and Users Association, plastics production companies should first use the association to realize marketization when they research and apply new technologies to improve their recycling. If products cannot be recycled, they cannot be recycled.

Sablin of Welman Company pointed out that the recycling rate of US food container grade PET bottles is only 7.4%. There must be good cooperation between container producers, end consumers, waste collectors, and recyclers. Under this kind of better cooperation conditions, problems related to recycling can be solved through APR expert dialogues. The idea of ​​balancing the cost of recycling with the price of the product or the balance of this offset is questionable.

What the departments involved in recycling PET need are not bottles but fibers that do not require refining. On the other hand, in contrast, AmcorTwinParNorty-America has established a partnership with Altoplast, which supplies both Coca-Cola and Levanra companies for their production from PET bottles to recycling bottles.

In addition, Price of Innovative Climates Inc. of Eapat.A. Inc. reported on a lightly fingered closure for disposable beer and carbonated beverage bottles. This easy-opening cover is expected to be marketed in the near future. An easy-to-open lid is assembled on the side wall of the 2000 mm cover, and the easy-open lid is opened. The internal pressure is eliminated and the screw can be unscrewed.