“Mainstream food and beverage manufacturers are seeking designs that range from simple, lightweight options to more aesthetic shapes with optimised weights, yet all compatible with high-speed production,” comments Mikael Derrien, Manager Packaging Innovations at Sidel.
“They aim to reduce production costs through light weighting, lower blowing pressures, and reduced energy consumption, while also striving to minimise their carbon footprint in response to regulatory pressures and consumer demand.”
Addressing the Challenge of rPET Bottles
“Today there are bottle bases on the market suitable for lightweight designs and high production speeds, however, they’re designed for virgin PET bottles. Sidel’s StarLITE-R STILL is the only solution on the market specifically developed to address recycled PET that achieves the high performance necessary in this competitive market space.”
Balancing production speed, material type, and bottle weight presents a complex challenge for manufacturers in maintaining high performance, but the StarLITE-R STILL overcomes these with precise bottle base shaping and efficient material distribution.
High Performance with Patented Design and Technology
Its innovative design can also be seamlessly retrofitted onto existing production lines ensuring versatility and the solution requires a low blowing pressure, further enhancing its sustainability credentials.
The StarLITE-R STILL bottle base features Sidel’s patented technology which includes smooth material stretching and precise distribution; optimised venting for easy shaping; and an efficient base cooling circuit ideal for rPET which is likely to be processed at higher temperatures.
The new design ensures the base does not deform or break, crucial for maintaining the bottle's integrity during production, conveying, storage, transportation, and use.
Enhanced Performance and Efficiency
The mould base's rounded-edge design makes it easier to shape during blow moulding, which increases the bottle base resistance to defects such as bursts during the blowing process. This feature is particularly important for lightweight bottles, which are more prone to such issues due to the use of thinner material.
With a high base clearance, the structural design prevents deformation, ensuring functionality and stability even in high-temperature conditions.
The bottle base also performs reliably during high-speed production, thanks to an efficient cooling. This cooling process prevents deformation and defects, maintaining consistent quality at rapid manufacturing speeds.
Improved Sustainability and Cost Savings
The bottle production process can use up to 20% less blowing pressure due to improved mould venting of the StarLITE-R STILL mould base. The carefully designed grooves and venting holes in the mould ensure that air escapes efficiently, allowing the bottle base to take its desired shape perfectly, even at lower pressures. This reduces energy consumption and production costs while maintaining quality.
By switching from virgin PET to 100% rPET thanks to StarLITE-R STILL, manufacturers can benefit from a reduction in 2,400 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent each year.
This bottle base can also be blown at lower pressure, only requiring 16 bars - a reduction of up to 20% on standard air blowing operations, translating to a further saving of 51 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent and to 205,000 € saved, each year.
The bottle base is also compatible with a wide range of weights, including very lightweight bottles as low as 7g for 500ml format.
Versatility with StarLITE-R STILL
Sidel’s latest StarLITE-R bottle base provides manufacturers with increased versatility as it is compatible with round, square-round and rectangular shaped bottles as well as suitable for single or multi-serve sizes from 0.25L up to 2.5L. It can also be used with transparent or white PET.
This new bottle base is easy to integrate onto existing manufacturing lines and is qualified for high production speeds across various bottle formats.
It supports single-serve production rates of up to 2,700 bottles per hour per mould and multi-serve rates of up to 2,400 bottles per hour per mould. The StarLITE-R STILL can also be used with virgin PET as well as rPET and be produced utilising Sidel’s EvoBLOW, Universal, and Series 2 blow moulders.
Expanding the StarLITE-R Range
The streamlined bottle base is the latest addition to Sidel’s signature StarLITE-R range, joining the ranks of innovative designs like the StarLITE-R for carbonated soft drinks (CSD), StarLITE-R Nitro and StarLITE-R Premium.
The original StarLITE-R for CSD, was Sidel's first solution dedicated to rPET, offering enhanced protection against deformation, improved stability, and increased resistance to bursting. Meanwhile in 2024 Sidel released the StarLITE-R Nitro, a unique, high-resistance bottle base specifically engineered for still nitrogen-dosed products in 100% rPET bottles and the StarLITE-R Premium, a sleek, high-performance bottle base for distinctive, 100% rPET bottles.
Find out more about StarLITE-R Still and how you can access this kind of support for your business on the Sidel
