The emergence of PET beer bottles broke the situation that glass bottles and cans dominated the beer packaging market. With the growing maturity of PET bottles in the field of beer packaging, PET bottles cut from the high-end market will further open up the market space in the beer packaging field.

PET beer bottle advantage

Compared with glass bottles, PET bottles have the following advantages: 1) excellent safety; 2) light weight, easy to transport over long distances, saving transportation costs; 3) PET bottled beer is more portable than glass bottles and cans, more adaptable Young people seek new and different psychology; 4) Fill the pure draft beer or high-grade beer with brown, oxygen-blocking PET bottles to improve the appearance; 5) PET bottle type and capacity can be selected for greater flexibility and richness. Product variety.

Urgent improvement

The difference in adaptability of PET bottles to traditional beer filling equipment, such as PET bottles can not be washed with a bottle washer, can only be washed with high-pressure sterile water, the sterility of the bottle is difficult to guarantee (especially long-term storage of bottles); Hot PET bottles cannot pass the pasteurization machine, and the sterilizing status of the packaging workshop is high. The labeling method of PET bottles is quite different from the current labeling method, and the labeling machine needs to be modified. For existing glass bottle beer filling equipment, filling the PET bottle requires more modifications to the equipment, which is relatively expensive to retrofit and requires more time to switch between glass and PET bottles.

In addition, since the strength of the PET bottle is not as good as that of the glass bottle, the air in the bottle cannot be removed by means of secondary vacuuming, and the capping machine cannot be directly used for capping, and the wine filling machine and the capping machine need to be modified. At present, the most worrying question for beer manufacturers is: Can PET bottles withstand the impact of manual loading and unloading at 0.60% carbon dioxide? Can you withstand the pressure of 6-12 stack heights during storage? Will it break or leak during transportation? As far as I know, a domestic company's products exported to South Korea have encountered similar problems. During the transportation of sea containers, PET bottles have leaked and exploded.

In addition, PET is a downstream product of petroleum, which is greatly affected by fluctuations in international oil prices. Compared with traditional glass bottles and cans, small-capacity PET bottles are now more expensive. From the material itself, no matter what kind of organic synthetic materials are inevitable, a small amount of organic monomers are inevitable. When the inner wall of the bottle is in contact with the beer for a long time, a trace amount of organic matter is dissolved; the carbon dioxide loss of the PET bottle after filling is 10-15 %, if oxygen enters the beer, it will aggravate the aging of the beer. PET bottles need to improve their ability to protect against UV rays and prevent solar odor from appearing in beer. In addition, PET bottles also have the disadvantages of easy to scratch the bottle wall, difficult to clean and disinfect, easy to swell after use, and difficult to recycle. Currently, enterprises generally only use PET bottles to pack beer when they are large-capacity (1600ml) or need long-distance transportation. .

The technological advancement of glass bottles also puts competitive pressure on PET bottle applications. With the introduction of the small mouth pressure blowing method, the weight of the glass bottle has led to a reduction in the cost of the glass bottle. In the case of 355ml glass bottles, the weight has been reduced from 270 grams in the previous years to 230 grams. The latest technology can even blow 190 grams of disposable bottles.

In summary, the emergence of PET beer bottles broke the situation that glass bottles and cans dominated the beer packaging market. At present, the large American brewery Miller, Japan Kirin beer, Denmark Carlsberg, Holland Heineken all use PET beer bottles, South Korea PET bottle beer is more than 40% of the beer consumption market. China's beer industry has also entered the initial stage of PET bottle use. By the end of 2009, dozens of beer companies including Yanjing Beer, Zhuhai Unicorn Beer and Shijiazhuang Sanjiu Brewery have adopted PET beer bottles. As the technology matures, PET bottles will further open up the application space in the beer industry in the future.