Amcor launches first commercial container utilizing breakthrough LiquiForm technology
By Canadian Packaging staff
Design & Innovation General Bottles Plastic Amcor Greenblendz LiquiForm Nature’s Promise hand soap PET soap bottleBottle for Nature's Promise hand soap is produced on proprietary Amcor-built machine powered by LiquiForm.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Amcor has proven its game-changing LiquiForm technology with the commercialization of the first consumer package. In addition to reducing supply chain costs, LiquiForm technology has the potential to improve packaging consistency and lower the carbon footprint associated with filling and packaging.
Amcor partnered with Greenblendz, a Michigan-based co-packer and developer of private label, environmentally-friendly consumer products, to develop and commercialize packaging for the Nature’s Promise brand of hand soap.
Amcor produced the 12oz polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle on a proprietary Amcor-built machine powered by the LiquiForm process. The new machine is the industry’s first manufacturing unit to successfully utilize the LiquiForm technology.
“We’re excited to be a partner in the commercial validation of such a highly sustainable manufacturing process,” says Greenblendz founder and chief operating officer Steve Berry. “LiquiForm technology delivers enormous efficiencies throughout the supply chain and improves the industry’s carbon footprint.”
LiquiForm technology uses the packaged product instead of compressed air to simultaneously form and fill containers. In this case, the hand soap essentially forms its own rigid PET container using the LiquiForm process.
By combining the forming and filling into one step, the process eliminates costs associated with the equipment and energy of the traditional blow molding process along with the handling, transport, and warehousing of empty containers.
“LiquiForm has the potential to revolutionize the filling and packaging industries with a more flexible, efficient, and sustainable supply chain,” says Amcor Rigid Plastics’ Diversified Products Division vice-president and general manager Ann O’Hara. “The development and launch of the first commercial manufacturing machine and the introduction of the first commercial product represents two major milestones for the LiquiForm technology.”
The forming of bottles with Amcor’s LiquiForm process also opens new pathways toward lighter, more sustainable packaging.
Lighter weight containers, achieved through improved consistency in wall thickness, combined with a reduction in the transport of empty containers, reduces environmental emissions and lowers the carbon footprint.
The LiquiForm process also offers the potential to reconfigure supply chains and move packaging closer to the market, resulting in strong logistical benefits and further carbon footprint reductions.
The bottle, which contains 50 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, is a drop-in replacement for the current Nature’s Promise container and uses the existing closure and label.
About Greenblendz
Greenblendz, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, was founded by Steve Berry in November 2008 with a straightforward plan to bring successful manufacturing of eco-friendly, sustainable products to Michigan. After contacting the state of Michigan with the plan, Greenblendz was awarded with a MEGA tax incentive, through the MEDC and also personal and property tax credits from the City of Auburn Hills. The company offers private branding and contract packaging solutions to leading brand owners and manufacturers. For more information, visit www.greenblendz.com.
About Amcor
Amcor is a global leader in developing and producing high-quality, responsible packaging for a variety of food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical-device, home- and personal-care and other products. Amcor works with leading companies around the world to protect their products and the people who rely on them, differentiate brands, and improve supply chains, through a broad range of flexible packaging, containers, cartons, closures and services. The company’s 35,000 people generate more than US$9-billion in sales from operations that span 200-plus locations in more than 40 countries. More information at www.amcor.com.
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