Alpha Packaging, a
leading manufacturer of plastic bottles and jars for the personal
care, pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement industries, has
recently introduced four 32-ounce narrow-neck bottles that are made
using a 2-stage blow molding process. Each of the new 32-ounce bottles
represent the largest size in Alpha’s four most popular polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) liquid lines: Boston Rounds, Cosmo Rounds, Modern
Rounds and Capri Ovals.
These bottles are typically used for large quantities of hand
sanitizers, liquid soaps, shampoos and conditioners, and other liquids
used around the home or in larger institutional settings. The overflow
for each bottle exceeds 1000ml (1 liter), so they are ideal for items
marketed as either 32 liquid ounces or liter-size.
All four bottles are made from the same 50-gram 28-410 preforms on
2-stage (reheat and blow) machinery at Alpha’s Salt Lake City plant.
Alpha’s 50-gram
preforms are available in standard colors of clear, light amber,
cobalt blue and white for any of the four styles of narrow-neck
bottles. Minimums for colored bottles are 50,000 pieces; clear bottles
have a one-pallet minimum.
The 2-stage process has several advantages over Alpha’s usual
single-stage injection stretch blow molding (ISBM) process, especially
for the larger bottles Alpha is using it for. According to Bob Wilson,
Director of Alpha Technology Center, “The 2-stage stretch blow molding
process offers the ability to produce fairly lightweight containers
with very high impact resistance, which is ideal for these large PET
bottles,” he says. The 2-stage process also has some drawbacks,
including visual imperfections and blemishes in some of the large PET
bottles.
Samples of Alpha’s stock bottles, including all four of its new 32oz
bottles, can be ordered by visiting
http://www.alphap.com/products/catalog.html and searching under
Alpha’s PET Narrow Neck bottles.