Brief Description of Development of PET Bottle Foaming Process

As early as 1998, people started using chemical foaming agents to produce HDPE shampoo bottles. Unlike traditional production processes, Plastic Technologies ("PTI") has developed the "oPTI" process, which uses the MuCell micro-foaming process (licensed by Trexel) to foam PET bottles. The process does not require any modification of the existing equipment, but a modified barrel is attached to the preform forming apparatus so that the nitrogen and the molten material are uniformly mixed there. As the foam increases the hardness of the bottle, the resulting foamed bottle weighs approximately 5% less than conventional foamed bottles. In addition, the foaming process also significantly enhances the surface skid resistance of the bottle and the repeatability of the process operation. According to PTI, the oPTI process is also suitable for processing PEN and PLA.

PTI's oPTI process uses Trexel's MuCell microcellular foam technology for foamed PET bottles