An integrative simulation approach to weight reduction in poly(ethylene terephthalate) bottles

Abstract

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a widely used resin in the production of carbonated soft drink (CSD) bottles produced by injection-stretch blow molding. A reduction in the bottle weight brings down the cost of packaging by reducing the materials and manufacturing costs. This article presents an integrative simulation study where 1.5-L CSD bottles produced from preforms with different weights were assessed in terms of process viability and product quality. The simulation results were analyzed with respect to the experimental data obtained for the currently used CSD bottle made from 40 g of preform. We found that we could reduce the weight of the PET bottles by 7.5% without jeopardizing the functionality of the bottles in terms of the structural performance properties, such as the top-load and burst strengths. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2012