Mineral water bottle without off-taste

Abstract: The present invention relates to the technical field of refillable PET bottles. It is an object of the present invention to provide a refillable bottle which can be used for mineral water and is a veritable refillable bottle, i.e. which can be filled with mineral water independent of what beverage it contained before. This is achieved by means of an additive in the container wall which binds the acetaldehyde contained in the PET and by using a bottle forming process which allows the production of containers (from a preform) which can be washed at a higher temperature without noticeably shrinking.

Description: The present invention relates to the technical field of refillable PET bottles. Refillable PET bottles are more and more developing into a real alternative to glass bottles; however they still have their limitations. One such limitation is the temperature at which the containers can be washed without starting to shrink. Another limitation is the so-called "flavour carry-over" which implies not to use bottles which contained a specifically flavoured beverage again for a substantially differently flavoured or non-flavoured beverage. When the empty bottles are returned it is impossible to say what they contained before. For this reason, certain beverages must always be filled in new PET bottles if the fillers do not want to use sniffers, recognizing residue beverage smells in the returned bottles, to group certain bottles used for a certain beverage to the filling station for the same beverage - as recognized by the smell detecting and grouping sniffers. A thermoplastic polymer with a component to neutralize Acetaldehyd (AA) in normal bottles - which are no "refillable" bottles which need the copability of "hot washable" - are disclosed in CH-B 684 537 (D. Ganz); said polymer with AA-binding (neutralizing) component is designed to give "normally" solid material under "Normalbedingungen" (see col. 2, lines 15 to 20 of said document). Improved flavor retaining property in combination with reducing AA-concentration is subject matter of WO 93/20147 (Eastman Kodak), but also with no hot-washable bottles. US-A 5,006,613 (Eastman Kodak) concerns clear containers (with less than 10% haze) for "hot fill" containers without AA-neutralization; a "hot fill" bottle however has a completely different design than a "hot washable" bottle. A mineral water bottle with low AA-content is subject matter of JP-A 05/043,782 (Kuraray) as reported in Derwent's abstract AN 93-104445 of February 1993; this bottle has high transparency and less deterioration of taste due to AA-content. The same matter finds its public availability in JP-A 02/191,626 (Teijin), as reported in Derwent's abstract AN 90-271561 of July 1990. If a refillable bottle is to be filled with spring water (a mineral water of spring water quality) it must not have been used for a flavoured drink such as fruit juice. The walls of PET bottles for mineral water may also not contain noticeable quantities of (free) acetaldehyde, as (free) acetaldehyde (AA) from the wall migrates into the mineral water, thus deteriorating the taste of the mineral water. AA, however, is contained in any PET-container or bottle which claims to be hot-washable, as being standard effect of the manufacturing process. PET bottles for mineral water therefore may not give rise to flavour carry-over, and their walls must not contain free acetaldehyde which might migrate into the spring water. It is therefore an object of the invention to reconcile these conflicting interests and suggest a refillable bottle and a process of manufacturing the bottle, which can be used for mineral water and is veritably refillable, i.e. which can be refilled irrespective of what it contained before. The invention to solve this problem is outlined in claims 1 to 4 and 8 or 9. The invention is based on the fact that a specific process has been used to manufacture the container to describe the container's physical properties. The resulting bottles are hot-washable at elevated temperatures of about 75°C to 85°C. For physical reasons, existing processes use a PET which normally results in a (relatively) high concentration of acetaldehyde (in short terms: AA) after injection moulding and blowing of the preform. It is exactly this (relatively) high AA-content which makes it impossible to use these bottles for mineral (spring) water. However, if the PET contains an additive which binds the AA contained in the wall, migration of AA into the mineral water can be avoided, and due to the manufacturing process, the bottles are hot-washable to avert carry-over by washing the bottles without the need for costly coatings. As a result of the hot washing process any flavours clinging to the wall - in which the AA is contained in bound state - are desorbed to such an extent that mineral water which is subsequently filled into the bottle is not affected. Surprisingly, the hot-washing process removes any flavours clinging to PET bottles with the AA remaining bound by the additive and as the AA is bound, it does not affect the mineral water either, even if the bottles are stored over extended periods of time. The limitations associated with bound acetaldehyde in manufacturing the hot-washable containers are much smaller than believed in the art. The inventive concept thus achieves hot-washable (refillable) bottles for spring water, by virtue of four alternatives of obtaining hot washable containers of claims 1 to 4, linked with each other by said general inventive concept. Four different methods of manufacturing hot-washable containers to define the physical structure of the containers are suggested (claims 1 to 4). A process of obtaining the container of claim 1 is outlined in claim 8. A process of obtaining the containers of claim 2 is outlined in claim 9. It is believed that walls containing bound AA allow flavors, clinging on their surface, to fully (or almost fully) be removed by the allowed temperature range for the cleaning or washing liquid. Fully or almost fully removal of residual flavours would not have been achieved by hot washing only. A low concentration of additive, whose function is to bind the acetaldehyde contained in the wall, is sufficient (Claim 7). Claim 5 depicts preferred thermostable materials which could be used for a container according to claim 4. All containers may be bottles (claim 6). The AA binding substance may be or comprise a polyamide, for example a low molecular weight partially aromatic polyamide (e.g. poly(m-xylylene hexanedioic amide) or poly(hexamethylene isophthalamide)) or a low molecular weight aliphatic polyamide (e.g. poly(hexamethylene hexanedioic amide) or poly(ε-caprolactame)), or a mixture thereof. Examples as embodiments can be given without requiring drawings. A container is made from a preform. A preform already has a thread finish at the upper end as well as a body and a bottom area, which are turned into the body and the bottom of the bottle respectively when the preform is blown under high pressure into a mould (blow moulding). Preforms are substantially made of PET. In multi-layer processes, specific materials are injected into a mould simultaneously or one after the other (sequentially) to get a multi-layer preform. The actual container can be made in a two-step blowing/shrinking process, which first turns the preform into an over-sized intermediate container, then shrinks said container so that it is under-sized and finally blow-moulds the shrunk intermediate product to its final size. Instead of employing the above blowing/shrinking process it is also possible to use thermostable middle layers in the preforms; a polycarbonate middle layer between outer PET layers is especially suited. Surprisingly, the hot-washing process removes any flavours clinging to PET bottles with the acetaldehyde remaining bound by the additive. Apart from washing out any flavours, the washing also cleans the container, so that it can be used for mineral waters without the risk of flavour carry-over. As the acetaldehyde is bound, it does not affect the mineral water either, even if the bottles are stored over extended periods of time. The limitations associated with bound acetaldehyde in the manufacture of hot-washable containers are much smaller than they were generally believed to be in the art. It is possible to fill this bottle, which was described by way of example, with flavoured drinks and refill it with natural spring mineral water without the risk of any off-flavours or off-taste being produced in either the flavoured drink or the mineral water. The present invention relates to the technical field of refillable PET bottles. It is an object of the present invention to provide a refillable bottle which can be used for mineral water and is a veritable refillable bottle, i.e. which can be filled with mineral water independent of what beverage it contained before. This is achieved by means of an additive in the container wall which binds the acetaldehyde contained in the PET and by using a bottle forming process which allows the production of containers (from a preform) which can be washed at a higher temperature without noticeably shrinking.

Claims: Container consisting substantially of PET, being suitable for mineral water, by (a) comprising an additive in the wall of the container which holds back or binds the acetaldehyde (AA) contained in the PET; characterized in that (b) the container being manufactured from a preform in a production process that allows the container to be washed without noticeable shrinkage at an elevated temperature in the range of 75°C to 85°C, said production process comprising a two step blowing/shrinking that enlarges the preform in the first step to an intermediate container being of larger size than the final container, a shrinkage based on heat influence and a blow-moulding of the shrunk container to its final size. Container consisting substantially of PET, being suitable for mineral water, by (a) comprising an additive in the wall of the container which holds back or binds the acetaldehyde (AA) contained in the PET; characterized in that (b) the container being manufactured from a preform in a production process that allows the container to be washed without noticeable shrinkage at an elevated temperature in the range of 75°C to 85°C, said production process comprising a heat-setting in which the wall of the container becomes heat-stable when being in a heated or hot mold under maintained pressure for an extended period of time. Container consisting substantially of PET, being suitable for mineral water, by (a) comprising an additive in the wall of the container which holds back or binds the acetaldehyde (AA) contained in the PET; characterized in that (b) the container being manufactured from a preform in a production process that allows the container to be washed without noticeable shrinkage at an elevated temperature in the range of 75°C to 85°C, said production process comprising an adding of a small amount of PEN to said PET, making the container capable for washing at the elevated temperature without noticeably changing its size. Container consisting substantially of PET, being suitable for mineral water, by (a) comprising an additive in the wall of the container which holds back or binds the acetaldehyde (AA) contained in the PET; characterized in that (b) the container being manufactured from a preform in a production process that allows the container to be washed without noticeable shrinkage at an elevated temperature in the range of 75°C to 85°C, said production process comprising the introducing of a middle layer, neighbored by PET-layers, the middle layer being a heat-stable material as a stabilizing layer. Container according to claim 4, comprising polycarbonate or polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) as heat-stable material. Container according to one of claims 1 to 4, being a refillable bottle. Container according to one of claims 1 to 4, comprising the additive in a concentration of 1% to 5%, preferably more than or equal 2%. Method for manufacturing a container according to claim 1, said method comprising the steps of (a) injection moulding a preform of substantially PET with an additive in the container wall forming portion of the preform, which additive holds back or binds the acetaldehyde (AA) contained in the PET; (b) introducing the preform in a mould; (c) blow moulding the container in a two step blowing/shrinking process, by enlarging the preform in the first step to an intermediate container being of larger size than the final container, shrinking the intermediate container based on heat influence, and blow-moulding the shrunk container to its final size, thus allowing the container to be washed without noticeable shrinkage at an elevated temperature. Method for manufacturing a container according to claim 2, said method comprising the steps of (a) injection moulding a preform of substantially PET with an additive in the container wall forming portion of the preform, which additive holds back or binds the acetaldehyde (AA) contained in the PET; (b) introducing the injection moulded preform in a mould and heating the mould; (c) blow moulding the container in a heat set process, by blow-moulding the preform under maintained pressure to a final container size in the hot mould; keeping the wall of the blown container for an extended period of time in contact with the inner surface of the hot mould, thus becoming heat-stable and allowing the final container to be washed without noticeable shrinkage at an elevated temperature.

Inventors: LINNENBAUM FRANZ J, TEVLIN JOHN, LINNENBAUM, FRANZ J., TEVLIN, JOHN
Applicants: SCHMALBACH LUBECA, SCHMALBACH-LUBECA AG
Application year: 1995
Main classification: B65D1
IPC codes: B29C61, B29C49