SPOTLIGHT: Food & Beverage

Fuze Begins Move to Custom PowerFlex PET

Fuze Healthy Infusions, a line of healthy alternative, non-carbonated energy drinks, is extending the reach of its glass container brand by bringing eight of its 18 SKUs to market in custom PET bottles. Fuze is introducing the PET containers to reach potential markets that are more suited to the attributes of plastic, such as outdoor venues, sporting events, concerts, and vending.

Technology had to catch up with desire before Fuze could be comfortable with a custom PET bottle with brand and shape awareness.

Fuze Beverage LLC in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, first began its quest several years ago, when hot-fill PET technology was still relying on ribs and panels to gain structural stability. This look was not compatible with the sleek contour of Fuze's iconic glass bottle. "A paneled bottle would be inconsistent with our branding," explains Bill Meissner, vice president of marketing at Fuze. "Consumers love the shape of our glass bottle and it is an asset in achieving the higher price points that a premium beverage commands."

Strategic partners

As Fuze worked to grow its brand equity, sales, and flavor alternatives, Amcor PET Packaging was making inroads in panel-less, ribless PET bottle technology. The company that brought the two together was Zuckerman-Honickman, a bottle distributor in King of Prussia, PA. "Zuckerman-Honickman brought Amcor's new technology to our attention," Meissner says. "They have been an essential partner in this development."

The custom, 16.9-ounce PowerFlex™ PET bottle for Fuze was developed at Amcor. Previously, many beverage bottlers did not have a PET alternative that met both their hot-fill and their aesthetic requirements, thereby forcing their premium brands to stay the course in glass containers, especially brands that had substantial heritage in glass. "Glass has restrictions in certain channels of trade," explains Meissner. "Additionally, we wanted to find a plastic solution that could act as a catalyst for future multipacks."

Amcor's PowerFlex bottle features a patented panel-less design which greatly improves hot-fill (185° F, 85° C) bottle options. Amcor's structural design eliminates the panels and has large, completely smooth sides. "Because you no longer have panels in the sidewall, this makes the bottle easier to label," explains William Featherstone, vice president of sales, beverage division, Amcor PET Packaging. "You don't have to worry about mislabeling or the ripple effect labeling over panels can cause."

The science behind it

Amcor's technical staff has created a patented bottle that absorbs vacuum via a specially designed diaphragm base that draws upward as the liquid cools. It has the geometric characteristics to enable the inverted cone shaped diaphragm to deflect upward as the vacuum is created.

Meissner worked with Amcor to push the envelope to match the previous shape of the Fuze glass bottles. The resulting geometry of the straight wall design gives PowerFlex great top-load characteristics, it has no points of stress concentration which could cause bending, and it can be run easily on existing glass filling lines.

Brian Pieszchala, manager of PowerFlex development at Amcor, explains that the challenge was in how the gently sloping shoulder would react to the vacuum. "Vacuum is going to take place at the weakest point of the structure," Pieszchala says. "The key was in shaping the radiuses for maximum performance while still giving Fuze the distinct neck and shoulder design for which they were looking."

A final challenge was the tendency for the full shrink label to creep up from the bottom of the bottle. The solution was to create dimples at the bottom of the mold ring that translate into subtle bumps on the bottle's base, which provides full label coverage.