Bericap’s Closure Solutions for Beer in PET

Bericap offers two different closure solutions for the beer market: For neck finish PCO 1810 (also called PCO 28), DoubleSeal O2S.

22/11/08 The world market for beer filled in PET bottles and closed by plastic screw caps is steadily growing. Consumption of beer in PET is strong in Eastern-European and Asian countries; also in Germany an important share of the beer market is already in PET.

Beer as an oxygen sensitive product challenges the PET bottle and the closure with respect to oxygen transmission. Packing high quality beer in PET bottles requires barrier properties for the bottles and oxygen scavenging properties for the closure to absorb oxygen in the headspace on the one side and to avoid ingress of oxygen on the other side. Bericap belongs to the very first plastic closure manufacturers having developed and integrated oxygen scavenger technology into their closures and have built the required production capacities in various Bericap facilities around the world.

Bericap offers two different closure solutions for the beer market: For neck finish PCO 1810 (also called PCO 28), DoubleSeal O2S.

The closure concept is based on the very successful DoubleSeal one-piece-closure that is well proven for CSD products. The oxygen scavenger is inshell moulded and works independent of the sealing function of the DoubleSeal sealing system.

For neck finish PCO 1881 it offers SuperShorty O2S.

SuperShorty has been developed to fit on the short neck finish PCO 1881. The height of the new neck finish which will replace PCO 1810 in the future, is 4 mm shorter. Compared to a PCO 1810 neck and an adequate 28 mm closure, the weight reduction by using a PCO 1881 neck and a SuperShorty is min. 2 g per bottle.

Especially for the beer market, Bericap has developed a crown cork design which looks very similar to the traditional beer crown cork and therefore keeps the product integrity of beer. The SuperShorty is equipped with an oxygen scavenger for the beer market.

While the first beer in PET was using the conventional standard neck PCO 1810 (so called PCO 28), the intention of the beer industry very soon was to differentiate from the actual neck finish and closure design. At the same time rising raw material prices called for cost reduction measurements and the starting carbon footprint discussion looked for solutions to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources. The development of the PCO 1881 short neck did support those requests.

Short neck solutions like the PCO 1881 challenge the closures when used for carbonated beverages: the most critical performance parameter is the venting performance. The shorter finish leads to a faster opening and increases the risk of blow-off. The adequate closure design eliminates such risks.

The venting capacity of the SuperShorty crown design ensures safe venting up to 2,5-l-bottles filled with up to 4,5 Vol% CO2. Safe venting means that there is no risk of blow-off, when consumers unscrew the closure with excessive speed. Taking into account the priorities of beer bottlers SuperShorty was introduced in 2007.

Meanwhile three big beer producers have switched from PCO 1810 to PCO 1881 neck finish to participate on the growing beer market in PET with a distinguished package. Substantial preform and closure capacities for the new neck finish and closure have been installed and will support further progress in other geographic regions and different product categories.

All closure types can be offered with and without oxygen scavenger. They are available in numerous shell colours and can be printed with up to three top print colours.