In Asia, packaged drinking water is an essential product for many city dwellers, particularly those who live in a country or region where they cannot depend on a reliable supply of potable tap water. Personal or health-related reasons may also also have caused consumers to choose the cleaner packaged alternatives.
For households that prefer to consume packaged drinking water, large-volume PET containers constitute a sensible option. Not only for practical but also for ecological reasons as large containers mean less packaging material per litre. It is therefore not surprising that water and oil containers with a volume of more than 3 litres already account for 1% of all plastic bottles worldwide. They are made predominantly of polycarbonate (PC), HDPE and PET. In view of its material properties, chief and foremost its low weight, the latter is the obvious option for non-returnable containers.
To supply this market with its specific container size requirement, the Krones Group has expanded its product portfolio: The new Contiform 3 BigBottle produces containers with a volume of up to 8 litres, and it features 10 to 14 cavities and can produce approximately 10,000 to 16,800 containers per hour. It is also able to handle smaller formats from a volume of 2 litres upwards.
As far as container dimensions are concerned, a net height of max. 380mm and a diameter of up to 190mm are feasible. Preform dimensions are max. 170mm for net length, max. 23mm for neck finish height and max. 53mm for neck ring height.
Bottlers who want to operate their large-container production in the lower speed range will find the requisite technology at Kosme. The Krones subsidiary’s machines feature 4, 6 or 8 cavities and produce containers with a volume of up to 11 litres. Linear machines for containers holding up to 30 litres round off the portfolio. As a large-container machine in the higher output range, the Contiform 3 BigBottle closes a gap in the group’s portfolio. Something the stretch blow-moulders from both Krones and Kosme have in common is that they are ideally suited for handling recycled PET and can be block-synchronised with other machines. In fact, the first Contiform 3 BigBottle did not leave the Krones plant as a stand-alone machine. It was delivered to China as part of a blow-moulder/filler block.
