Improving Product Life

Small capacity PET containers (less than 600 ml) are especially sensitive to gas exchanges: reabsorption of oxygen (O2) and losses of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Actis™ is the depositing of a fine layer of hydrogenated amorphous carbon on the inside of a PET bottle which serves as a barrier to the gases.

Sidel offers two barrier solutions: Actis™ and Actis Lite™. In both cases, the composition of the carbon layer is the same; only the process time and thus the thickness of the coating are different :

• Actis™: process time = 2.2 sec
• Actis Lite™: process time = 1.2 sec

These solutions reduce the permeability of the PET to the gases and thus improve product shelf life. They also limit migrations associated with PET.

Actis™ coating by Acetylene Plasma

1. Vacuum is created inside and outside the bottle
2. Acetylene is injected into the bottle
3 & 4. Microwave energy causes acetylene to reach its plasma state
5. Amorphous carbon is deposited on the inner wall of the bottle
6. Bottle and cavity are returned to atmospheric pressure

• The high level of PET barrier properties

Barrier Process	Barrier improvement factors*
	O2	CO2
Actis™	x 30*	x 7**
Actis Lite™	x 10*	x 3**

*Reference values in comparison to an empty untreated PET container

**Reference values in comparison to a filled untreated PET container

• Reducing of bottle weight related to blowing performance of the SBO Universal™ machines. For example, for a CSD 600 ml bottle: weight reduction from 28 g to 23 g and an increase in product life from 8 to more than 20 weeks, using Actis Lite™.
• Control of process parameters (interior and exterior bottle vacuum, acetylene flow rate, microwave power and plasma luminosity): guaranteed quality of treatment for every bottle.
• Protection of the environment: Actis™ treated PET can be recycled in traditional PET recycling streams. The coating represents less than 0.04 % of total PET bottle weight.
• Compatibility with foodstuffs: the Actis™ technology has been approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and by the TNO (Technische National Onderzoek, The Netherlands).
• Actis treatment meets criteria established by the FDA for the use of up to 50 percent recycled, non-food compatible PET to produce bottle for liquid foods.

Actis™ 20 for barrier treatment at rates up to 12,000 bph

With its rotary kinematics proven in the blowing sector, the Actis™ 20 machine offers output between 10,000 (Actis™) and 12,000 (Actis Lite™) bottles per hour.
Fed into the machine by an infeed screw, the bottle is then conveyed by the neck through the machine. Each station on the treatment wheel is equipped with a pneumatic nozzle to load and unload the bottle by the neck. Once coated the bottle is transferred to the air rinser. Then the exit wheel guides the bottle to downstream conveyors.
Compact and accessible, functional and user friendly, the Actis™ 20 machine was designed to guarantee availability rates of over 95 percent.
Maintenance on the machine is facilitated by the accessibility of the equipment’s main systems.

Machine Characteristics	Actis™ 20
Process type	Actis™	Actis Lite™
Output rate	10 000 bph	12 000 bph
Number of stations	20
Bottle Characteristics
Volume scale	200 to 600 ml
Height under neck support ring	130 to 218 mm
Bottle diameter	55 to 75 mm
External neck support ring diameter	≤ 43 mm