Single-serve PET bottles are now 'small and affordable'

But Coca-Cola in Asia is investing heavily in a technology that uses plasma deposition to apply a nanoscale layer of glass-like silicon oxide to the finished container.

It has even given its own name to the 250ml PET bottle – the Affordable Small Sparkling Package (ASSP).

The technology comes courtesy of German filling equipment specialist KHS, which first applied its Plasmax vapour deposition system over a decade ago to larger PET bottles, principally beer.

Single machine block​

Now, it has developed a TriBlock system, which links stretch blow-moulding, coating and filling in a single machine block.

“Plasmax has been around for some time​,” explained KHS product manager Arne Wiese. “But now we offer better bonding of the layers, making the bottles more tolerant to flexing.”​

While Plasmax is said to provide a gas barrier as effective as glass, it does not – of course – come with the same weight. The ASSP weighs just 10g. For developing-world logistics, this can make a huge difference.

Coca-Cola Hindustan had, by November 2016, installed or ordered three TriBlock lines for India, with another installed in Indonesia.

Looking at new markets​

According to Wiese, global growth rates in CSDs had sunk to around 2%, and fillers were looking at new markets, and new formats to reach those markets.

KHS is not alone in attacking the small-bottle, high-barrier PET market. Sidel has repackaged its own plasma deposition system, Actis (amorphous carbon treatment on internal surfaces), blocking blowing, coating and – potentially – filling in a single line concept.

But for Sidel, European markets are most of interest given the renewed emphasis on smaller portion sizes for added-sugar drinks and juices.