Looking to the future: Further PET flexibility

While PET is undoubtedly the packaging of choice for Asian beverages, price pressures mean that manufacturers are looking for savings in material costs while seeking a wider range of options WITH an increasingly active lifestyle across Asia, on the go beverages in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles is becoming the norm. According to Euromonitor International, PET is the most popular packaging material for beverages in Asia. PET has been particularly successful in China where it accounted for 60% of types of beverage packaging in 2006. PET bottles have also gained a wide popularity in India where they are used not only for water, milk and juice, but also for soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. According to the Japan PET Bottle Association, soft drinks accounted for 93% of PET food packaging in Japan in 2007. Furthermore, the use of PET bottles has grown by 36% from 2002 to 2007. Euromonitor International has estimated that the Asian PET market for beverages will hit 120 billion units in 2010 driven by sustained demand across all Asia. Amid this extraordinary growth, beverage makers are facing increasing challenges owing to the rise of packaging material prices and high cost of production. It's no surprise therefore that companies are increasingly looking for alternatives, whether it is considering the use of recycled PET preforms or lightweighting PET bottles. In addition, new investments call for increased versatility and flexibility in machinery. This allows producers to change formats and sizes in response to consumer demand. High quality ecological dyes The extraordinary growth of the PET bottle industry in the Asian market is facing a challenge due to the fact that natural PET has an inherent yellow tinge. Although this has no impact on the contents of the bottle in any way, this is of concern to beverage producers who desire to market their products in clear see-through containers. Potential customers tend to judge the quality of a product based on visual characteristics, so milk must be white, whereas mineral water is expected to be colorless. Safe dyes for PET must satisfy the high purity and safety regulations in place on a worldwide basis for food packaging and food contact applications, including approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 揗acrolex?Red 5B, Violet 3R, and Blue 2B from the Functional Chemicals Business Unit of specialty chemicals company Lanxess can help to offset this fundamental issue. Leading PET manufacturers use these FDA-approved dyes during the polymerization process to produce a crystal clear colorless or blue-tinged transparent PET. Beer and fruit juice require protection from UV-light, and therefore PET bottles containing such liquids are colored either green or dark brown. PET color masterbatches may contain a combination of different Macrolex dyes to allow the manufacturers to optimize the PET color for the respective applications. A critical feature of Macrolex and one of importance to the PET manufacturers is that the dye does not migrate from the PET into the liquid. This inherently implies that the dye is safe for use in consumer products. These dyes are available in a variety of delivery forms, including microgranules. Being hollow spheres, the microgranules are easily crushed and dissolve rapidly and evenly in plastic. In addition their good flowability ensures exact metering, uniform color development free of lumps, all the while eliminating any residual product in the containers.(finished)New Balance