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Hot‐fillable vinyl bottles
Author(s) -
Gruber C. M.,
Patterson J. R.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of vinyl technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.295
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1548-0585
pISSN - 0193-7197
DOI - 10.1002/vnl.730110107
Subject(s) - retort , food packaging , heat resistance , materials science , environmental science , composite material , waste management , food science , engineering , chemistry
The use of plastic containers will grow 11% per year over the next ten years as metal and glass decline. Plastic is the material of choice for food containers in all areas of food processing including hot‐fill and retort packaging. This is due in large part to the strides that have been made in barrier property improvement, better manufacturing, and improvements in the economics, esthetics, and physical properties of plastics. Hot‐fill and retort packaging account for approximately 64% of the total packaged foods, and in the next 10 years this is expected to increase to 68%. Of the two, the hot‐fill method reportedly will gain in importance while retorting will decline by about 1% per year in effect pushing the growth in hot‐fill packaging to about twice that of the overall food packaging business. Since 1980, PVC bottles have grown from 100 MM lbs to more than 200 MM lbs of resin in 1987 (growth of approximately 15% per year). However, PVC bottles still represent only 7% of all plastic bottles and only 1% of all materials used to make rigid containers—an indication of great future potential. One of the serious disadvantages of PVC, however, is its low heat resistance which limits the service temperature of finished articles to about 70°C. Further penetration by PVC bottles can be accelerated by raising the heat resistance above the hot‐fill levels of 85°C–100°C. This would permit PVC to be used for many food applications such as fruit juices and table syrups. Now an additive is available that can be formulated with PVC to form miscible, transparent blends with increased service temperatures. The miscibility of the glutarimide acrylic copolymers in PVC allows it to significantly improve heat resistance without effecting the optical properties of the container. As a result, single layer PVC bottles can be made on conventional blow molding equipment that can be hot‐filled at 85°C–100°C, have glass‐like clarity, with good impact and moderate oxygen barrier resistance. The discussion will include guidelines for compounding the imide copolymer with PVC, properties attainable, and a look at the economics versus other hot‐fillable containers.