The project was developed in partnership with Novembal under the initiative of Logoplaste. LPTD the R&D branch of Logoplaste developed the PET perform and Novembal developed the cap. Logoplaste commercializes the preform and Novembal the caps.
The company says that after testing and introducing the pre-forms as a 0.33 litre and 0.5 litre PET water bottles for the Portuguese market through beverage group Centralcer and Unicer, it is now planning to expand the products further into the European PET water container market.
The new pre-forms were developed on the basis that the plastic raw material for the average 1.5 litre PET bottle currently represents approximately 30 per cent of the total costs - a significant margin in packaging terms.
Primary objectives were to reduce the cost of the packaging as well as responding to EU waste recycling regulations, which now require that increasing amounts of PET are recycled.
These requirements, set by the European Commission last year, roughly double packaging recycling targets for the EU's 25 members, in turn putting added pressure on the beverage industry to fulfill the targets.
Logoplaste Plastic Technology Development, the company's research and development branch, responded to this trend with a new neck/cap design that is said to meet manufacturer's needs in terms of pre-form price savings as well as the search for solutions that make recycling quicker, cheaper and easier.
"We are aware about the EU PET recycling rules, indeed our company is really active on this area," said Logoplaste spokesperson Paulo Correia R&D Manager of Logoplaste group.
"We consider that this weight reduction could mean an important saving in terms of recycling costs at the end of the year. Eco Design is an extremely important issue for us, and of course reducing the amount of raw material used is one of the main objectives to meet this end."
The main advantage of the new pre-form, lies in the design of the bottle's neck. According to the company the new ergonomic shape of the neck allows the PET pre-form to be produced with much thinner material, contributing to a significant weight reduction for the packaging.
Correia estimates that on the 0.33 litre bottle the new design means a 12 per cent reduction in the amount of material used.
The upstart is that the bottle's weight has been reduced from 13gr down to 11.5gr, making it the lightest PET preform in its category. This weight reduction has also been applied to the bottles' cap, which was developed and manufactured by Novembal to weigh in at 1.45gr, compared to a standard 2gr.
Obviously weight reduction translates into significant production costs, and likewise, the lower total weight means that there will also be comparable savings in terms of recycling costs.
Correia estimates that the average cost saving on each bottle should be around around 10.5 per cent.
The new design has also been implemented to minimize on production modifications. Because the re-design focueses on the neck of the bottle and the thread of the cap, this means that any modifications to production machinery are minimized, with the mould for the body of the bottle remaining exactly the same.
The company says that the new design was developed in partnership with Novembal, following the initial research and development carried out by its R&D arm.
Based in Cascais, just outside Lisbon, Logoplaste's mainstay business is packaging solutions for the food and beverage industry. However its operations also include household and personal care as well as lubricant products.