Sidel Offers Flexible Packaging Solutions for All Products, Shapes and Sizes

Modulomold adds to the concept of flexibility by allowing different bottle designs to be produced in a single mold using removable mold inserts with quick and easy change-overs.

6/3/2011 --- New market trends and consumers’ expectations require constant adaptations of bottle designs and shapes. Based on its strong expertise in plastics packaging solutions, Sidel offers a variety of bottle and multipack designs that fulfil today’s key packaging requirements. Beverage producers not only pose high demands on design and marketability of their packaging products, but also require top quality and safety standards. In addition, bottlers and converters attach high importance to sustainable production processes at low cost and high profitability. At interpack, Sidel presents four packaging solutions that help its customers achieve variety in designs while fulfilling all additional market demands.

As a complete solution provider with expertise in both engineering and creative design, Sidel offers a number of bottling designs and toolings. What’s more, Sidel advises and supports its customers through its Packaging and Tooling Centres at six locations throughout the world. The latest bottling design choices include the FreeShape bottle, the Cluster bottle and the Daily dose package, all offering maximum levels of flexibility and creativity. Modulomold adds to the concept of flexibility by allowing different bottle designs to be produced in a single mold using removable mold inserts with quick and easy change-overs.

Cluster bottle: unique creativity
It is not just the bottle itself, but also the way it is presented, that makes it attractive to retail and consumers alike: the cluster symbolizes the “jewel case” made for a precious product such as water. Sidel has come up with a new packaging concept that signals a new approach to product promotion: rather than placing bottles on a shelf, the Cluster bottle bundles a number of short-neck bottles using green neck rings that are attached to a main branch resembling fruit hanging on a tree. The customers in the shop simply “pick” the bottles they wish to buy. Cluster bottles are suitable for a range of different products, from water and flavoured water to sensitive beverages including juices and dairy. The bottles can be light-weight and can be made of recycled material and/or biosourced material. Because of their attractive design, they are an ideal 2nd-life package for possible reuse at home.

DailyDose package: an innovative pack
DailyDose is a multipack solution directed particularly at families and consumers who wish to consume small amounts of fruit doses or yoghurt drinks on a regular basis. Six bottles are sleeved individually and linked with one unique label in a handy set.

For packaging companies, they enable flexible and cost-effective production as one label, or, alternatively, one sleeve is used for a pack of six bottles. The daily dose is one pack for a family with one dose a day of healthy product.
The Daily Dose package again is a flexible concept offering one design for different products. It is ideal for on-the-go consumption as the small bottles fit into the smallest of handbags.

Modulomold: Productivity and “marketing-ability”
As liquid food packaging companies strive to give consumers ever more choices, the need for quick format change-overs becomes increasingly important. To respond to these productivity needs as well as the greater customization of packages, Sidel presents its Modulomold technology. It allows several bottles of the same size (up to 0.7 liters) to be produced in a single mold using removeable mold inserts. It is an intuitive solution for quick and simple format changeovers. The bottles have two shared parts, the labeling area and the base, and either one or two areas, the shoulder and/or the body, can be customized using the inserts. It takes less than 30 seconds to change a set of inserts, from opening the first mold to opening the second.

No tools are required to perform the change-over. Thus, Modulomold perfectly fits with the current trend in terms of packaging designs turnover allowing proposing some limited packaging series or dedicated to a special event as well.

FreeShape: Liberating bottle shapes for sensitive beverages
With FreeShape, PET bottle shapes are no longer constrained by the choice of filling technology. FreeShape offers the possibility of using a similar bottle design for both hot fill and aseptic filling. This development is based on Sidel’s in-depth knowledge of material characteristics, aseptic packaging, hot filling and blow molding technologies.

The secret of FreeShape lies in its specific patented bottle base profile, which acts like a membrane or piston: it pulls up and falls depending on the contained product’s volume variations. This solution responds to the packaging needs of sensitive products such as juices or teas filled at temperatures between 85 and 92°C , which lead to bottle swelling during hot fill and then shrinkage when the liquid is cooled.