USA-based Husky Injection Molding Systems has developed a system which is specifically designed for manufacturing preforms with high percentages of food-grade recycled polyethylene (PET) flake.
According to John Galt, Husky’s president and CEO: “Husky recognises the importance of sustainability in PET packaging, which is why we have invested in putting post-consumer material back into the bottle. Recycled flake used to be challenging to work with. Husky saw this as an opportunity to take a leadership role to simplify the manufacturing process and reduce the overall cost and environmental footprint of PET packaging.”
Dave Clark, the director of Sustainability at leading packaging firm Amcor, added: “We appreciate that Husky is taking the initiative to make PET a more sustainable packaging option. This new development will help make it easier to incorporate more recycled PET into the bottles we make and allow us to reduce our overall carbon footprint.”
This new HyPET option addresses the specific challenges of manufacturing PET bottles using recycled PET flake. System enhancements include in-line melt filtration to eliminate black specks and other contaminants that might otherwise affect bottle quality, as well as a new extruder design for improved processing of pellet and flake blends. These features will allow manufacturers not currently using recycled PET flake to introduce this material into their products. For those already using recycled PET flake, this can eliminate some of the current manufacturing and quality challenges they may face while enabling an increase in their flake content.
