Leveraging Sidel’s innovative technology, the new StarLite-R Still bottle base offers seamless integration of 100% recycled PET (rPET). This advancement not only facilitates light-weighting but also ensures high-speed production suitable for water, juices, milk, and edible oils in sizes ranging from 0.25L to 2.5L.
Mainstream food and beverage manufacturers are increasingly seeking designs that span simple, lightweight options to more aesthetically pleasing shapes with optimized weights. According to Mikael Derrien, manager packaging innovations at Sidel, these designs must align with high-speed production capabilities.
“They aim to reduce production costs through light-weighting, lower blowing pressures, and reduced energy consumption, while also striving to minimize their carbon footprint in response to regulatory pressures and consumer demand,” Derrien stated.
“Today, bottle bases on the market can support lightweight designs and high production speeds; however, they are generally tailored for virgin PET bottles. Sidel’s StarLite-R Still stands out as the only solution specifically developed to optimize the use of recycled PET, achieving the high performance hallmark of this competitive market,” he added.
StarLite-R Still features precise bottle base shaping and efficient material distribution, allowing manufacturers to effectively balance production speed, material type, and bottle weight. Additionally, this design can be retrofitted onto existing production lines, ensuring optimal versatility, while requiring a low blowing pressure.
Designed with Sidel’s patented technology, the StarLite-R Still bottle base incorporates smooth material stretching, precise distribution, optimized venting for effortless shaping, and an efficient base cooling circuit—ideal for processing rPET at elevated temperatures.
This innovative bottle base design prevents deformation or breakage, thus maintaining the integrity of the bottle during production, conveyor handling, storage, transportation, and use.
The rounded-edge design of the mould base facilitates shaping during blow moulding, enhancing resistance to defects such as bursts during the blowing process. This feature is vital for lightweight bottles, which are particularly vulnerable to such issues due to the use of thinner material.
With high base clearance, the structural design enhances resistance to deformation, ensuring consistent functionality and stability, even in high-temperature environments.
Furthermore, the bottle base performs reliably during fast-paced production, facilitated by efficient cooling. This cooling process effectively prevents deformation and defects, ensuring consistent quality amidst rapid manufacturing cycles.
Thanks to improved mould venting in the StarLite-R Still mould base, the bottle production process can utilize up to 20% less blowing pressure. The thoughtfully designed grooves and venting holes enable efficient air escape, allowing the bottle base to achieve its desired shape perfectly at lower pressures. This advancement reduces energy consumption and production costs, all while maintaining quality.
Transitioning from virgin PET to 100% rPET via StarLite-R Still enables manufacturers to lessen their carbon emissions by 2,400 tonnes annually. This figure is based on an 11g, 0.5L bottle with an annual production of 270 million bottles, comparing the environmental footprints of virgin PET versus 100% rPET bottles. Reference data: 2.44 t CO2 eq/ton of virgin PET and 1.64 t CO2 eq/ton of rPET, sourced from Ecoinvent, Method IPCC 2013, Category climate change, Indicator GWP 100a.
The bottle base can also be produced at lower pressures, requiring only 16 bars—reflecting a 20% reduction compared to standard air blowing operations. This translates into an additional saving of 51 tonnes of CO2 equivalent and €205,000 in annual cost reductions.
Moreover, this bottle base accommodates a wide range of weights, including ultra-lightweight bottles as low as 7g for the 500ml format.
Sidel’s latest StarLite-R bottle base enhances versatility, being compatible with round, square-round, and rectangular bottle shapes in single or multi-serve sizes, ranging from 0.25L to 2.5L. It is also suitable for use with both transparent and white PET.