Fast-track Your Next Package with the Help of X4 Technology
Constar is supplying AriZona Beverage Company with 20.5-ounce PET bottles for its new RESCUE Water. The PET bottles feature Constar's X4™ technology, a breakthrough, panel-free design for hot-fill beverages that imparts the robust, in-hand feel of glass, while optimizing performance during the hot fill and labeling processes. AriZona Beverage Company is one of the first companies to commercialize Constar’s X4 technology. The monolayer bottles incorporates Constar’s DiamondClear® technology, an aggressive oxygen scavenger blended evenly throughout the PET to protect the freshness, flavor and nutrients of the beverage, while giving the PET the clarity and gloss of glass. |
X4™ Technology
Is it glass or is it plastic? Significantly lighter in weight than both glass and many comparably sized PET containers, Constar’s monolayer PET bottles with X4™ technology feature a breakthrough design that gives them the rigid, in-hand feel consumers enjoy and the performance manufacturers prize on production lines.
Constar’s X4 technology is designed specifically for hot fill applications of food and beverage products. Whereas traditional PET hot fill bottles employ flexible vacuum panels to withstand and absorb the high temperatures and vacuum pressure of hot filling, bottles with X4 technology are cylindrical with smooth, rigid body sidewalls. The vacuum created during the cooling process is absorbed in an unlikely, but convenient location: the base section of the bottle.
Advanced Geometry
Through re-engineering the bottle design, the vacuum is now absorbed in the base rather than in one of the six vacuum panels, with no change in structural integrity. The advanced geometry of PET bottles with X4 technology helps them maintain a stable footprint after filling, when the bottom contracts, and again after opening, when it returns to its original position.
Aesthetic Advantages
The rigid, panel-less containers replicate the look and feel of glass. For those converting from glass, this is a significant aesthetic advantage over traditional six-panel hot fill PET bottles, which can feel “loose” or “crinkly” in the consumer’s hand.
Operational Advantages
PET bottles using the X4 technology run consistently and efficiently on filling lines. The panel-free design also improves labeling efficiencies. These attributes make conversions from glass or other PET bottles a manageable process, with moderate changes required to current filling and labeling processes.
Sustainable and Recyclable
PET containers with X4 technology are lightweight, weighing as little as one-tenth that of a comparably sized glass container. Less weight means fewer trucks are required to transport product thereby reducing the carbon footprint. Used containers are 100 percent recyclable.