Plastic Innovations Unites Dispenser Caps and PET Bottles

At a single Sandton plant, one manufacturer is moulding both the closures and the containers that go together on a water cooler, and Plastic Innovations wants distributors and cooler suppliers to notice. The company is making that case this September, as South Africa turns towards spring and the hotter months, the stretch of the year when water businesses take stock of what they are running on their routes.

Operating out of 71 Galaxy Ave, Frankenwald, Sandton, the firm keeps product design, mould design, final product moulding and assembly together on one floor, an arrangement it calls completely horizontally integrated. It also bills itself as the largest dispenser cap manufacturer on the continent. For anyone filling bottles and delivering them to homes and offices, this means the container, the neck finish and the closure can be worked out as a single specification instead of being bought from different places and simply expected to fit.

A bottle range built around PET

On the container side, the products fall under DuraPET, the company's PET packaging line, which stretches from preforms all the way to finished large format bottles. Moulded in 100% recyclable, BPA free PET, the water dispenser bottles carry a density of 1 350 kg per cubic metre and melt at 260 degrees Celsius. Because PET does not dissolve in water and the construction leaves out weak points such as weld lines, according to the company, a bottle keeps its structural integrity even after being handled again and again.

Several formats make up the line. Weighing 780g, the 18.9L Dispensor Handle Bottle has an integrated PET handle that the company says delivers an optimised strength to weight ratio, its separate handle construction allowing for effortless cleaning. At 720g, the 18.9L Dispensor Bottle takes a minimalist shape, resists splitting and is made for repeated use cycles. The 150g 10L Bottle is square shaped to use storage space more efficiently, fits a 46mm neck, ships with a secure cap and wide grip handle, and serves not only water but juices, oils, sauces and cleaning solutions. Finally, the Ladies 10L Handle Bottle weighs 460g and is built around a comfortable carrying handle.

Both 18.9l water bottles are pitched directly at cooler and dispenser use, and the company calls the material a food safe solution for that job. The whole line comes as standard in Ocean Blue and Crystal Clear, with additional colours possible where minimum order quantities are met. Branding is catered for too: the handle version sets aside a dedicated area for logo visibility, while the standard version leaves ample surface area for branding stickers.

Four closures, one bottle neck

It is the caps that make the pairing most obvious. Every one of the four closures is built to fit 18.9 litre bottles, also known as 5 gallon, and each is moulded in LDPE with a density of between 917 and 930 kg per cubic metre and a 110 degree Celsius melting point. Like the PET in the bottles, LDPE does not dissolve in water. The difference between the four comes down to how each cooler receives the bottle.

Reselable and weighing 15g, the Hydrolock Non Spill cap relies on a specially designed inner washer system and ships with a tamper proof seal as standard, supplied in Royal Blue. The 10.5g UniCap has a four way window that tears cleanly into four equal sections, is intended for a spiked pot system cooler and comes in Ocean Blue. Lightest of the group at 9g, the SnapCap is offered in two versions, with an inner washer or without, and the company says it works with water cooler spikes of any profile. The MultiCap, at 10g, uses an inner washer for a uniform seal and carries a tamper proof sticker across the cap surface. Just as with the bottles, more colour choices across the cap range can be had subject to minimum order quantities.

Taken as a set, the four closures address the common cooler formats a South African distributor is likely to be running in the field simultaneously, which is frequently a mixed fleet rather than one model. A supplier operating older spiked pot units next to newer machines can match different caps to the same bottle instead of swapping the bottle to suit each cooler.

From preform to pallet

The finished containers begin as preforms. Plastic Innovations makes heavyweight PET preforms in 400g, 720g and 775g, then uses stretch blow moulding to form them into large format bottles. Producing the preform, the bottle and the closure under one roof gives the company command over the neck finish, the very point where a seal either holds or fails.

Warehouse capacity is another part of the picture. The company holds a lot of it, and links that to quick turnaround times and stock availability. For an operation refilling and delivering along a fixed route, having stock on hand matters just as much in practice as how the container is designed, which is one reason the manufacturer keeps volume in the building rather than working purely to order.

Who the range serves

Among the sectors Plastic Innovations supplies are water and sanitation, mining and resources, security and defence, furniture and interiors, technology and electronics, and food and beverage. Within water, that takes in bottled water plants, home and office delivery operators, cooler rental businesses and retailers. Its water cooler bottles also appear on Takealot and Makro Marketplace, letting a household or a smaller buyer reach the range without a bulk order, while bulk and custom orders go through the company directly. Both the bottle and cap ranges are supplied within South Africa and across Africa.

Design and moulding beyond bottles

The water range is only one slice of a wider plastic injection moulding business. Product design, mould design, final product moulding and assembly are all on offer, backed by what the company cites as more than three decades of experience and hundreds of moulding projects. It sums up its design thinking as the GSDS principle, for green, sleek, durable and simple, which it frames as balancing eco friendliness and cost efficiency against elegance, durability and functionality. Beyond DuraPET, the company also operates its MinePlas and AllPro lines, which include stemming plugs for blasting on the mining side.

Sustainability is treated as part of the engineering rather than a bolt on. Every bottle in the range uses 100% recyclable PET, the company recycles hundreds of tons of plastic each year, and it points to energy efficient machinery in its plant. A large format bottle that resists splitting and is made for repeated use cycles simply stays in service longer before it goes back for recycling, which is what durability actually looks like in a refill business.

September signals the change of season in South Africa, and the lead in to the warmest months is when cooler suppliers count their stock, take out bottles that have reached the end of their service life and confirm that the closures on their shelves still fit the machines on their routes. Plastic Innovations is steering that trade towards a range in which bottle and cap were designed to work with each other from the start, and towards a manufacturer that makes both.

Complete specifications for the bottle range, the cap range, the PET preforms and the injection moulding services can be found on the Plastic Innovations website at https://plasticinnovations.co.za/.

About Plastic Innovations

Plastic Innovations is a South African plastic injection moulding manufacturer located at 71 Galaxy Ave, Frankenwald, Sandton. It makes custom plastic products, among them PET water dispenser bottles in 10 litre, 15 litre and 18.9 litre formats, PET preforms and dispenser bottle caps, and it serves water and sanitation, mining and resources, security and defence, furniture and interiors, technology and electronics, and food and beverage. From a horizontally integrated facility it provides product design, mould design, moulding and assembly, draws on over three decades of plastic moulding experience, and calls itself the biggest dispenser cap manufacturer on the continent. Its PET range is both 100% recyclable and BPA free.

Media ContactPlastic InnovationsEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: +27 82 498 1440Website: https://plasticinnovations.co.za/