The production of beverage containers has some strong characterising elements. First of all, it predominantly involves at least two technologies: blow moulding and injection moulding. Secondly, the manufacturers of machinery used for this purpose currently tend to supply lines for the complete process, from preform production to bottling, and when they are not equipped to do so, seek out collaborations and partnerships in order to offer the most comprehensive possible service. Such a situation makes it necessary, even more so than elsewhere, to increase production speeds as much as possible whilst reducing costs and consumption of resources. Finally, the beverage container sector involves - much more so than other products - a strong emotive component evoked by the aesthetics of containers, and which thus requires R&D effort to be devoted to the colours and shapes, including those of caps, closures and labels.