Canadian Plastics

Amcor unveils first commercial container utilizing LiquiForm technology

Canadian Plastics   

Packaging Plastics Processes

The PET bottle for Nature's Promise hand soap is produced on proprietary Amcor-built machine powered by LiquiForm.

Plastics packaging manufacturer Amcor has commercialized its LiquiForm technology, designed to reduce supply chain costs, improve packaging consistency, and lower the carbon footprint associated with filling and packaging.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based 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 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, Amcor said.

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.

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“LiquiForm has the potential to revolutionize the filling and packaging industries with a more flexible, efficient, and sustainable supply chain,” said Ann O’Hara, vice president and general manager of Amcor Rigid Plastics’ diversified products division. “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, O’Hara said. “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,” she said. “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 per cent post-consumer recycled content, is a drop-in replacement for the current Nature’s Promise container and uses the existing closure and label.

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