Competek highlights its complete optimization journey for lightweight PET bottles

Reducing the weight of a PET bottle is not simply a matter of using less material. As manufacturers look to reduce raw material consumption, improve efficiency and meet sustainability goals, achieving meaningful weight reductions while maintaining bottle and production line performance requires a targeted approach to preform design, bottle geometry and material distribution.

Through its Packaging Optimization approach, Competek supports manufacturers and brand owners throughout the entire lightweighting process, acting as a single partner throughout the lightweighting journey, from packaging design and development through to industrialisation, line implementation and ongoing production optimisation.

"Successful lightweighting requires a clear understanding of the production process, line requirements and bottle lifecycle”, said Luca Baldessin, Research and Development Manager at Competek. “As a single partner throughout the process, we combine engineering expertise with testing, validation and production support to help customers develop lighter bottles that are optimised for real manufacturing environments while maintaining performance and quality."

Turning lightweight designs into production-ready bottles

When designing a lightweight bottle, it is essential to understand how packaging changes will affect production performance. To aid this, Competek has developed a comprehensive set of procedures and tests aimed at ensuring feasibility and performance throughout the development process.

With more than 30 years of experience in PET packaging, Competek identifies the most effective optimisation opportunities to achieve the right balance between weight, strength, processability, cost efficiency and sustainability. The process begins with a technical assessment of customer requirements and continues through design, simulation, testing and performance validation.

The company's approach goes beyond bottle development. Through in-house packaging tests, line trials and on-site assistance, Competek works alongside customers throughout the industrial process, providing a single point of contact to optimise blowing parameters, production recipes and overall packaging performance.

Delivering measurable results

This end-to-end expertise enables manufacturers to reduce raw material consumption, lower production and logistics costs, optimise PET usage and decrease the environmental impact of their packaging.

Projects developed by Competek demonstrate that it is possible to significantly reduce bottle weight while maintaining the required levels of functionality, strength and performance. Its technical teams also help customers select the most suitable mould solution to ensure optimum production performance, efficiency and packaging quality. The goal is to ensure that improvements achieved during development are successfully translated into reliable and efficient production performance.