Tetra Pak designs light-weight caps

Tetra Pak has redeveloped two of its closure types in order to reduce the amount of plastic required in their manufacturing, and to enhance their opening & pouring attributes. The new designs will relate to the group's pre-applied direct injection moulded LightCap and the post-applied StreamCap.

The company has claimed that the pouring area of the new pre-applied closures will be about 50 per cent larger, with a diameter of about 30 mm to improve pouring and drinking. Similarly, the pouring area of the re-designed post-applied opening will be around 25 per cent larger than its predecessor.

Riccardo Vellani, manager of openings and closures, Tetra Pak Italy, said that the second generation of post-applied closures will have a 30 per cent reduction in opening force, and that the weight reduction target for both cap concepts is 20 per cent. ''The new post-applied closures will contain 3.3 gm of plastic, down from 4.0 gm for the current generation. The reduction in plastic content is being achieved by optimising plastic thickness and design of features,'' said Vellani.