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Emerging Materials Meet Technical Expertise to Develop New Packaging Options

When you’ve worked with traditional polymers as long as Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI) has, you know their strengths and limitations. That knowledge has provided the foundation for our involvement in creating or commercializing the next generation of materials and applications.

Biobased materials are next on the horizon. This emerging, often complex area, typically requires a significant amount of technical knowledge in order to properly navigate through performance and processing issues.

In addition, there is an ongoing discussion on how additives such as colorants impact the recycling stream. PTI has taken an aggressive role by participating in the development of colorant technology, which helps address some of these complex issues. For more information on how PTI can assist in understanding how recyclable your package is, please contact us.

PTI has also lead in the development of recycling technology. For example, Phoenix Technologies, (a PTI company) is a pioneer in the manufacture of recycled PET resin. Currently, there are commercial applications which use as much as 100 percent of Phoenix rPET.

Recycled Resins

Can your package benefit from rPET?

PTI’s sister company, Phoenix Technologies International has developed a proprietary, patented approach to decontaminating rPET, which produces a resin for direct food contact and other applications. The process has received a letter of “no objection” from the Food & Drug Administration and various other international food safety agencies, which allow customer use of up to 100% LNO™ resin in packaging applications. The line includes:

Food Grade LNO™ c pellets

This product offers unique benefits in color and IV properties over traditional rPET food grade resins. For applications such as water bottles, LNO™ c resin offers exceptionally low levels of acetaldehyde, sometimes even below that of virgin resins. Based on a simplified manufacturing process, the product is cost competitive with the virgin resins with which it may be blended.

Food & Drug Administration approved for conditions of use A-J.

Food Grade LNO™ p pellets

This material can be blended with virgin resin at high levels to mimic virgin appearance, performance, and cost. The process involves melting the flakes through a fine mesh filtration process to remove remaining contaminants such as aluminum, glass, and label particles to minimize surface imperfections. LNO™ p is a high intrinsic viscosity resin which can also be used in non-food applications requiring those properties.

Food & Drug Administration approved for conditions of use B-H.

Food Grade LNO™ w pellets

Reduced process steps create resin pellets with slightly lower IV and better color to blend well with water bottle virgin resins. It is well suited for personal care products where the brand owner may wish to use a food contact resin in place of a general bottle resin.

Food & Drug Administration approved for conditions of use E-G.

Biobased Polymers

Navigating the bio versus petroleum-based polymer maze

Biobased or bioderived plastics get their carbon molecules from renewable feedstocks. These new generation materials are garnering increased attention from brand owners charged with minimizing carbon footprint impact. Our Materials Evaluation Group has provided expert guidance to many industry professionals trying to understand which biobased materials will meet their processing and economic criteria. Shelf life and physical performance of these materials also need to be evaluated against traditional polymer options. Plastic Technologies, Inc. will help steer you through this confusing maze of options and technologies.

Thin-wall Packaging

Thin-wall barrier packaging offers application benefits

Plastic Technologies has been involved in the development of thin-wall barrier packaging for many years. Recently, the demand for these types of containers has soared. This has led to the development of numerous container shapes and styles for a variety of food packaging applications. These packages have become an attractive alternative to glass, metal cans, and thermoformed plastic containers. They provide shatter-resistance, reduced weight, improved aesthetics, faster filling line speeds, better part-to-part consistency, and longer product shelf-life benefits.

A new study reports the barrier performance of several commercially-available capsules from various systems on the market. Sample report and data are available.

Infusion Colorant Technology

Emerging colorant technology for polymers

PTI and Radco Infusion Technologies, LLC (RIT) are developing new colorant technology to improve the recyclability of blown PET bottles. Objectives include:

  • Impart color and additives to polymers after forming
  • Infuse color at the molecular level
  • Color on demand
  • Cost effective
  • Fast cycle time
  • Fast color change
  • Environmentally responsible

The AURA® infusion technology process developed by Bayer MaterialScience LLC and licensed to RIT, offers significant color and appearance advantages and positively impacts lean manufacturing objectives. The technology has also been successfully used with bottles made from recycle PET.

If you would like to know more about this colorant technology, please contact us.