Borealis and Borouge have launched an advanced grade of the BorPure HDPE range designed to reduce weight in caps and closures. BorPure MB5568 was launched in Europe by Borealis in early 2014 and will get its Asian launch at Chinaplas in April.
The grade has been designed specifically for the industry trend towards lightweight, standard short-neck closures (PCO 1881).
The Borstar platform is intended to permit the tailoring of PE mechanical and processing properties to match specific application requirements. The new grade displays improved stiffness and environmental stress crack resistance (ESCR) which potentially enables additional downgauging with consequent material and production cost savings, claims Borealis.
“Cost reduction in bottle production is a key factor in competitiveness for the beverage industry and lowering the volume of material used in caps is a focus element of that initiative,” said Russell Tew, Borealis Marketing Manager, Advanced Packaging and Fibre. “BorPure MB5568 has been developed jointly by Borealis and Borouge to positively aid that objective by allowing converters and brand owners globally to further reduce the amount of plastic, which is contributing further to the cost-reduction initiatives taking place in the beverage industry.”
The group says that BorPure MB5568 offers excellent organoleptic properties and has no taste or odour influence on bottle contents – a parameter which is monitored to ensure batch-to-batch consistency. As a multimodal polymer, BorPure MB5568 has a flow equal to that of benchmark monomodal MFR 2 HDPE resin.
“Borealis and Borouge, as the leading suppliers to the caps and closures industry, work continuously to identify changing market demands and deliver timely solutions that benefit the whole value chain from converter to consumer,” said Rainer Hoefling, Borealis Vice President Advanced Packaging and Fibre. “BorPure MB5568 offers a new level of packaging total cost performance efficiencies in line with that goal.”