The Latest Development and Opportunities of PET Packaging

PET (polyester) is a new type of synthetic material that has only been widely developed since the latter half of the 1960s. It is produced from terephthalic acid (PTA) and ethylene glycol (EG) via esterification and polycondensation (PTA). A PET resin is prepared or obtained by a transesterification reaction and a polycondensation (DMT method) of terephthalate with ethylene glycol. As a new type of synthetic material that is commonly developed, the advantages of PET itself are very obvious. The main points include:

(1) Excellent mechanical properties and wear resistance;

(2) Better creep resistance and rigidity;

(3) The water absorption is very low, the coefficient of linear expansion is small, and the dimensional stability is high;

(4) High thermal stability, low specific heat and thermal conductivity;

(5) Excellent electrical insulation properties;

(6) Excellent chemical resistance and so on.

This determines the use of PET is also very wide, of which the largest amount is the production of fiber, followed by the bottle, again for the production of film and sheet, in addition to also used for engineering purposes, such as automotive, electronic appliances, instruments and furniture and other industries .

In the past two years, there has been a new breakthrough in the international use of PET containers for milk packaging. Italy's pasteurized milk bottles have been changed from HDPE to PET to solve the defects of poor odor and poor taste of polyolefin bottles. The corresponding equipment for blow molding, filling and capping is also solved by Sidel. In addition, edible oils, seasonings, soy sauce, vinegar, etc. are the rising demand for PET bottles, providing a lot of space for the development of PET.

PET used in the plastic packaging market is becoming more and more popular among users, and its development trend of replacing glass packaging is also evolving step by step. In particular, China's status as a big country in the packaging industry has gradually stabilized and it has begun to develop in depth. Especially the PET beer bottle market lurks attractive business opportunities. China is the world’s largest beer country. Currently, it is still based on glass and bottle packaging. Some countries, such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, have already used PET packaging. To use PET bottles for 20% of China's beer production, about 28 billion -30 billion beer bottles are needed.

At present, the international PET bottle processing technology is changing with each passing day, emerging in an endless stream, and its main development direction is to improve the barrier performance and heat resistance. As a result, surface coating technology, co-injection stretch blow molding technology, and blend modification technology have emerged, and these technologies have been introduced domestically. What deserves attention is the new technology of nano-modified PET bottles, which contains 10% to 30% of clay nanometer and nylon composites to become high barrier nano-modified PET, which is the main direction of PET beer bottles. For example, Henan Zhanggong Group in China uses nanotechnology to coat PET beer bottles with inner walls to improve the performance of anti-ultraviolet, oxygen and carbon dioxide in PET bottles, and achieved good results.

In addition, PET is used for packaging in many fields of daily life, including pharmaceuticals, condiments and candy. For example, Rexam's first recycled PET drug bottle, which will be sold in retail pharmacies across the country in November, will reduce its environmental impact as consumers increasingly seek "green" methods. Rexam became the first packaging company to develop and sell transparent oval bottles made from 100% post-consumer recycled PET resin. The PET bottles can provide 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 ounces of different models that can be recycled repeatedly, further reducing resource consumption and environmental impact.

The Claude's condiment, which was the first to be packaged in PET plastic bottles, said that the use of PET bottles instead of glass bottles would save 50% in shipping costs and would significantly reduce broken/damaged goods, thus reducing the refunds paid to retailers by 90%. And because the company used a standard size of 16 ounces instead of the previous 12 and 16 ounces, the production conversion time was reduced from 4 to 5 hours to less than 1 hour.

Fox's Confectionery recently selected a high-transparency PET jar from RPC Blackburn to improve the packaging quality of its Glacier Mints and Glacier Fruits brands. The injection blow mold container combines the appearance of the traditional candy container with the advantages and fashion of the PET container - lightweight, shatterproof, easy to handle and has a crystal-like sheen, which also ensures that the product can show its Best use characteristics. It is because of its appearance that Fox has made the decision to change from a PVC container to a PET container. While the image of the brand is important, RPC Blackburn's containers can best represent the advantages of the product.

It can be seen that the ever-changing PET packaging technology is paying attention and application in various fields. In today's energy shortage and the general increase in raw materials prices, environmental protection has become the top priority of the work today. PET packaging is unique to its use. Advantages are developing vigorously, and repeated recycling will also further reduce the impact of resource consumption and the environment.