BERICAP’s HexaLite® Leads the Light Weight Development for Plastic Closures

Less than 10 years after having introduced on the market the first plastic closures for still water, traded as HEXACAP®, that weighted less than 2g and that were produced on large scale across the world (almost 10 billion closures per year), BERICAP is now engaged with another major challenge with HexaLite® closures at less than 1.5g, saving a minimum of 0.5g of plastic resin (HDPE), on new light weight neck finish for PET bottles saving at least 1.5g of PET resin, allowing savings of 2.0g per package.

Such program is part of a general commitment of BERICAP to offer to its customers a broad range of new closure and neck finish solutions to help them develop sustainable packaging solutions in key FMCG markets:

• SuperShorty® 28mm family for new PCO 1881 neck finish for CSD, beer and still water
• HexaLite® 26 and 29/25 family for still water and still drinks and corresponding THUMB’UP® sports cap versions
• New 38mm screw cap at less than 2.5g
• GALILEO® I 38mm for new 38mm snap neck finish
• New 26/21 closure range for edible oil for new 26/21 neck finish in replacement of 29/21 standard

This ambitious program of BERICAP is aimed at not only contributing to the reduction of consumption of non-renewable resources and of green house gas emissions (carbon footprint) ; but also at offering better and safer closure systems:

• For the bottlers using high speed filling lines
• For the supply chain (storage, transportation and distribution)
• And for end consumers with improved safety and comfort to use

The new range of HexaLite® closures includes two main sizes:

• HexaLite® 26 at 1.1g or less on new neck finish 26 at 2.2g or less, replacing current 26.7mm standard used in North America and incertain European countries, generating total weight savings of 1.7g or more.
• HexaLite® 29/25 at 1.4g or less on new neck finish 29/25 at 2.4g or less, replacing the 30/25 world standard for still, water generating total weight savings of 2.0g.

Such savings per bottle, generate almost 2,000t of resin savings for each one billion bottles produced (and almost €3 million cost reductions) and an estimated reduction of 15,000t of green house gas emission (carbon footprint).

Several of the features that make BERICAP closures quite superior to the closures of its competitors have been introduced on the new HexaLite®:

• Olive seal for better seal even under high temperature variations
• Slit, folded tamper evident band (FLEXBAND) for efficient TE performances, reliable and forgiving application, even on high speed lines, and better hygiene
• Organoleptic, anti-sabotage, stress cracking safe
• New aesthetics
• Comfort to open and to reseal for consumers

New sports cap of its THUMB’UP® family are in development to match such new 26 and 29/25 neck finishes, as well as for the new light weight PCO 1881.

First customers such as CRISTALINE in France started in 2008 with an INTERBEAD version of HexaLite® 29/25 and several starts are planned for late 2008 and beginning of 2009 in Europe and North America with HexaLite® FB (FLEXBAND).