Vitamins and flavors in hotfill PET applications such as isotonics, fruit juices, teas, nutritional and new age drinks can be adversely affected by exposure to light, said Bobby Jackson, business market manager whose responsibilities include hotfill beverage packaging. Jackson said Eastapak polymer 9663 has been widely used in heatset applications for more than ten years. We expect Eastapak polymer 9663 to continue to be used in markets other than heatset, so there are no current plans to discontinue this product. The polymer does not affect the cycle times when used in existing injection molding tooling. Reduced blow mold temperatures aids maintaining high-clarity in the container and also results in less downtime for mold cleaning.
Converters can use cold blow molds while achieving equivalent hotfill performance.
Improved hotfill performance offers the possibility of downgauging to a thinner-walled container in some applications, said Jackson. This allows converters to more easily obtain consistent UV performance with their containers. The new product initially will target the U.S. hotfill container market, with plans to expand availability to other regions as regulatory approvals are obtained. Product sampling is underway, and commercial production will begin in April 2001. Eastman offers a range of PET polymers uniquely suited to specific packaging applications, including mineral water, cosmetics, beer, carbonated soft drinks, and food.