PET 5-gallon bottle and handle

America's five-gallon water dispenser bottles market wants more sustainability, and Sipa has responded to this demand by developing a new version of these bottles. The new bottles are made from 100% bisphenol-free PET and are easy to handle and transport thanks to a built-in handle. The main challenge was to produce a bottle offering both lightness and high mechanical performance. Sipa has not only succeeded in combining these characteristics, but also gone a step further, developing a bottle whose built-in handle ensures greater functionality.
To achieve this, starting from a 690 g container with a polypropylene handle, already available on the US market, a preform was developed characterised by an extremely light neck and end, and by the presence of a larger quantity of material in the area where the handle is inserted during the blow moulding stage. The new container's handle is made from PET instead of polypropylene. This means simpler post-consumer recycling, given that there is no need to separate the two materials, and lower recovery costs.
The new bottle is produced on a SFL 2/2 stretch blow moulding machine with linear double cavity built by this company, which is based in Vittorio Veneto. In the testing stage, a production capacity of 250 bottles per hour per cavity was achieved, which is about three times the capacity achieved with polycarbonate bottles.
As part of the growing internationalisation of its operations, Sipa has also opened a new branch in Luxembourg, whose core activity is the development of applications and technical sales assistance. Luxembourg was chosen for its strategic position, between the local markets of France, Germany and Benelux, and because it offers a qualified multicultural and multilingual workforce. The new facility will, among other things, be involved in analysis of customer requirements in order to translate them into the development of new technological solutions for injection moulding and blow moulding processes.