New Sidel STARLITE NITRO BASE creates greater PET bottle resistance and stability using less energy

Reduced bottle weight and blowing pressure

Just like its predecessors in the Sidel StarLite range, the new 'Nitro' version decreases the amount of raw material needed to create the finished PET bottles. The optimum strength-to-weight ratio is achieved by reducing the thickness of the bottle's wall. The resulting?bottles require less energy within the blowing process, are lighter in weight and therefore can cost less to produce. "This solution addresses beverage producers' needs, who are looking for ways to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) to stay ahead in a competitive market yet still achieve even greater sustainability. The new Sidel StarLite Nitro base also ensures packaging integrity and creates an end-product which is packaged in a way that grabs consumers' attention", continues Le Guen. For instance, a 0.5 litre PET?bottle with a StarLite Nitro base weighing 1.8 grams can resist an internal pressure of up to 1 bar depending on the design of both the preform and the bottle, and the grade of the PET resin used.

Attractive and flexible PET bottle

The new StarLite Nitro base is an attractive, flexible solution from Sidel that enables the same PET bottle design to be used for beverages produced with or even without nitrogen dosing. It works with regular, ultra clean and aseptic filling. With a design similar to the base of bottles usually used for still beverage production, it avoids confusion with bottles with a mini-petaloid base on the supermarket shelves, traditionally associated with carbonated soft drinks by consumers. The new base is available for bottles ranging in size from 0.2 litre to 2.0 litres. It can be adapted for all generations of Sidel blowing machines, whatever the production output, including the latest Sidel Matrix™ blowers. The StarLite Nitro base can easily be incorporated into most existing bottle designs by Sidel's packaging engineering team and retrofitted onto existing production lines and moulds, using Sidel's enhanced StarLite mould bases and the company portfolio of line conversion services. 

Improved supply chain performance

With this increased stability and resistance, bottles featuring the StarLite Nitro base perform better throughout the whole supply chain, even in harsh conditions. They are ideal for conveying - from filling to the labelling and packing stages - optimising production uptime and keeping stoppages to an absolute minimum. Additionally, bottles produced with the new base will be more resistant to extreme temperatures. In conditions of up to 50°C storage, bottles can withstand up to 25 days without deformation and have the potential to last even longer. They can also demonstrate a 50% decrease in base rollout under frozen conditions.

Tangible cost reductions and sustainable production

The potential for lightweighting of the new Sidel StarLite Nitro base offers substantial cost savings too. For instance, a reduction of just 1 gram in a 0.5 litre PET bottle produced at 2,200 bottles per hour can result in savings of Euros 396,000 per year, based on 5,000 hours of annual production. Following the same calculation process, a reduction of just 1.8 grams in a 1.5 litre bottle can lead to savings of Euros 713,000[1] per year. Having a wider range of parameter settings - or 'process window' - yet still achieving the desired blown result, the new base is also easier to blow than existing bases.  Introduction of the base can mean a reduction in the need for air pressure of up to 25%. For a 0.5 or 1.0 litre bottle for example, only 18 to 20 bars of air pressure are needed for blowing, compared to the 25 bars needed for traditional bases. This in itself can lead to additional energy savings of up to Euros 90,000[2] every year.

[1] Return on investment (ROI) based on Sidel calculations
2  Based on Sidel Matrix SBO 20 producing 0.5 litre PET?bottles