Product category:
Bottles, bottling and jars materials, equipment and services
News Release from: Amcor PET Packaging | Subject: Milk bottles
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 June 2007
Plastic bottles for light-sensitive
dairy products
Amcor PET Packaging Europe has developed a PET-based material with a high opacity at low thicknesses to manufacture plastic bottles for long-life milk and other light-sensitive dairy products.
Amcor PET Packaging Europe is seeking to change the packaging of UHT milk and other light-sensitive dairy products with a range of monolayer plastic bottles for long-life milk The bottles are manufactured in Xamos, a PET-based material specifically developed by Amcor PET Packaging Europe
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 15 Jan 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Xamos achieves an extremely high opacity at a low thickness that has never been possible before with monolayer PET, allowing the bottles to deliver a four-month minimum shelf life for UHT milk.
Thanks to its monolayer construction, Amcor says that the Xamos bottles are cost-competitive compared to alternative forms of UHT milk packaging including the traditional carton and other bottle formats in PET and HDPE, which have to be multilayer to achieve the required product protection.
In addition, Xamos bottles offer all the traditional consumer benefits of PET - lightweight, easy to handle and convenient.
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The injected finish with its precise dimensions ensures a tight fitting cap for full reclosability and a leak-free performance without the need for an aluminium seal.
Blown on standard Injection Stretch Blow Moulding (ISBM) machines, Xamos bottles can be sterilised using both wet and dry methods.
In particular, Xamos bottles have shown very good thermal resistance during these aseptic processes.
Xamos features a matt soft touch surface, which dairy customers have identified as being more in keeping with a UHT milk bottle than the typical 'glossy' finish of traditional PET.
Typically lighter than alternative UHT milk bottles, the material offers all the design potential of PET to create distinctive looking bottles for branding purposes.
The bottles can be specified in a range of customised sizes and designs, with the smaller versions ideal for drinking 'on the go'.
Furthermore, Xamos offers an oxygen barrier that is up 20 times more effective than HDPE.
According to Amcor this widens the options for the packaging of UHT milk and other products that are growing in popularity such as Soya Milk and Pro-Biotic Drinks.
Xamos was specifically developed in response to increasing consumer demand for bottles in preference to the traditional laminated carton or 'brick'.
"Trends in dairy markets indicate that there is a strong consumer move towards bottles for UHT milk, particularly in countries where it is preferred to fresh milk," comments Doris Schneider of Amcor PET Packaging Europe.
"Bottles are more attractive, offer greater opportunities for individual designs and branding, and are perceived to be more convenient and user-friendly.
All these factors encourage greater usage among end consumers ".Xamos represents the next generation of UHT milk packaging.
Markets are very price sensitive so the material provides the first opportunity for many producers to consider a bottle option.
"Equally important, Xamos has scored very highly in consumer taste tests.
We are very confident about its future".
Xamos bottles are currently being trialled with a number of leading dairies and Amcor expects to announce the first commercial application for the material shortly.
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