Pet Bottle Production - Small Scale Manufacturing

Pet jar or pet bottle production is one of the most lucrative and profitable manufacturing opportunity in plastic and polymer industry. According to experts, polymer consumption by Indian plastic industry is expected to be double in the next 6 years. It means we can expect a figure of 20 Million metric tons by 2020.

A pet bottle production unit with a simple process of injection moulding and blow moulding is a profitable venture for the entrepreneurs.

Pet Bottle Production Market Potential

Pet bottle is an essential item for industrial packaging. It caters the food & beverages industry, pharmaceutical, FMCG, chemical, biochemical, gas etc. The advantages of PET bottles include pure, safe, good barrier to oxygen, carbon dioxide and water, lightweight and, therefore, less shipping costs, no leakage, design flexibility, recyclable, long shelf life, good chemical resistance etc. Major application areas of PET bottles are carbonated soft drinks, Mineral water packing, Syrups, Edible oil packing, Butter and Mayonnaise, Wine, Liquor and spirit packing, Sauce, jam and squashes packaging, Agrochemical packaging and as household containers.

Pet bottles are replacing glass bottles because of the high rate of breakage and the inconvenience of returning the empty bottle after consumption. The consumption of PET bottles is increasing on account of new customers being created for bottled beverages as well as an increasing number of products being replaced with PET bottles.

Finance For Pet Bottle Production Business

Like any manufacturing project, there are two types of finance requirement. One is fixed capital and another is working capital. You can go for entire unit finance or can take a separate loan for different requirement. However, you can avail the term loan and mortgage loan for a fixed capital requirement. If you want only working capital assistance then you can apply for cash credit or overdraft facility to your nearby bank or any financial institution.

Pet Bottle Production Unit Setup & Machinery

Select a location carefully for the pet bottle production unit. Availability of labour, distance from the market, proper arrangements of transportation play a vital role in net profit margin. Plan carefully. After getting a machinery installation floor plan, it is advisable to craft an entire floor plan of your pet bottle production unit.

The technology/Machinery required for manufacturing of the Pet Bottles are Injection Molding Machines and one Color Mixer. Additionally, you have to procure one Chilling Water plant, a Scrap Grinder and a Centralized Pulley laminating and printing machine.

Pet Bottle Production Raw Material

The raw material used in the manufacturing of PET Bottles/ Preforms is Polyethylene Terephthalate. Polyethylene tetra phthalate is a polymer that is formed by combining two monomers called modified ethylene glycol and purified terephthalic acid.

Pet Bottle Production Process

First of all, dry the PET granules that you receive from suppliers in a dehumidifier. Then, mix the PET granules with colorants. Then feed the material into the injection molding hopper. The material is plasticized and is injection moulded in a mould which can produce 12-72 performs in a single moulding. The molded preforms are cooled in the machine itself till it can maintain its shape and is taken out and cooled to room temperature. Then, pack the items in cartons for despatch.

Plastic Bottle Manufacturing

The manufacture of plastic bottles takes place in stages. Typically, the plastic bottles used to hold potable water and other drinks are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), because the material is both strong and light. To understand the manufacturing process it’s helpful to first examine the composition of PET and how this affects plastic bottles.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)

PET is a thermoplastic polymer that can be either opaque or transparent, depending on the exact material composition. As with most plastics, PET is produced from petroleum hydrocarbons, through a reaction between ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. To produce plastic bottles, the PET is first polymerized to create long molecular chains.

Polymerization itself can be a complicated process and accounts for many of the inconsistencies between one batch of manufactured PET and another. Typically, two kinds of impurities are produced during polymerization: diethylene glycol and acetaldehyde. Although diethylene glycol is generally not produced in high-enough amounts to affect PET, acetaldehyde can not only be produced during polymerization, but also during the bottle manufacturing process. A large amount of acetaldehyde in PET used for bottle manufacturing can give the beverage inside an odd taste.

Once the plastic itself has been manufactured, the bottle manufacturing process can begin. To ensure that the PET is appropriate for use, numerous tests are done post-manufacturing to check that the bottles are impermeable by carbon dioxide (which is important for bottles that carry soda). Other factors, such as transparency, gloss, shatter resistance, thickness and pressure resistance, are also carefully monitored.

Bottle Manufacturing

The first stage in bottle manufacturing is stretch blow moulding. The PET is heated and placed in a mould, where it assumes the shape of a long, thin tube. (The process by which the plastic is forced into the mould is called injection moulding.)The tube of PET, now called a parison, is then transferred into a second, bottle-shaped mould. A thin steel rod, called a mandrel, is slid inside the parison where it fills the parison with highly pressurized air, and stretch blow moulding begins: as a result of the pressurized air, heat and pressure, the parison is blown and stretched into the mould, assuming a bottle shape. To ensure that the bottom of the bottle retains a consistently flat shape, a separate component of plastic is simultaneously joined to the bottle during blow moulding.

The mould must be cooled relatively quickly, so that that the newly formed component is set properly. There are several cooling methods, both direct and indirect, that can effectively cool the mould and the plastic. Water can be coursed through pipes surrounding the mould, which indirectly cools the mould and plastic. Direct methods include using pressurized air or carbon dioxide directly on the mould and plastic.

Once the bottle (or, in continuous manufacturing, bottles) has cooled and set, it is ready to be removed from the mould. If a continuous moulding process has been used, the bottles will need to be separated by trimming the plastic in between them. If a non-continuous process has been used, sometimes excess plastic can seep through the mould during manufacturing and will require trimming. After removing the bottle from the mould and removing excess plastic, the bottles are ready for transportation.