The German filling and packaging giant says it launched the bottle late last year following a customer request to cut the weight of 12.5g bottles, without detriment to bottle performance.
KHS estimates that a beverage plant producing 100m lightweight bottles/year buying PET at €1.3/kg could save €200,000/year ($272,000) compared to the previous 12.5g version.
The brief also stipulated that the bottle needed to be resealable and KHS said one of the key steps in the process was reworking the bottle thread, which has been streamlined.
‘We believe there’s a lot of potential here’ – Arne Wiese, KHS
Developing the bottle using its Bottles & Shapes program KHS said it subjected it to stress tests while conveying it through a test line right through to palletizing, shipment and point of sale.
Arne Wiese, Bottles & Shapes product manager at KHS Corpoplast, said: "We believe there's still a lot of potential here. In the future, too, we'll continue to study all aspects and consider the line suitability of every new bottle we design in accordance with our Bottles & Shapes concept.
Part of the Salzgitter group, KHS reported orders worth €1.1bn in 2013, up circa. 11% while profit before tax rose to €10.6m.
‘Disruptive innovations’ in 2013
At drinktec 2013 the company launched its Nature MultiPack packaging system that turns PET bottles into multipacks by applying a special adhesive, as well as technology for direct printing onto PET bottles.
The company said in a recent earnings release that these were “two really disruptive innocation, as both systems involve significant savings in packaging material to be made”.
Large orders in 2013 includes two glass lines, three glass bottle fillers and other equipment supplied to Portugal’s largest beer producer Unicer.
Carlsberg bought three PET lines and Coca-Cola Enterprises bought a KHS PET line for the first time.
KHS also tipped its hat to the ‘booming’ craft beer sector in the US, noting sales of bottle fillers including the Innofill Glass Micro (pictured), canner and kegging systems to breweries, one of which was D.G Yuengling and Son.