At its Wassertrüdingen production site, one of the products Henkel manufactures is shower gel for its popular Fa consumer goods brand.
 

With preferential heating, KHS provides an energy-efficient method for producing oval PET bottles with optimized weight. Not only the food industry but also consumer goods manufacturers such as Henkel are opting for this cutting-edge technology. It also enables complex containers to be economically produced in house, with no need for external procurement.
 

In using preferential heating, Henkel improves its ecological footprint and simplifies its logistics and production processes. At its facility in Wassertrüdingen, Germany, the company has now invested in a KHS stretch blow moulder featuring the new technology for its Fa body care brand. Reducing the bottle weight while simultaneously increasing the percentage of recyclate used in the packaging were the key factors that influenced Henkel’s decision to buy.
 

Henkel has relied on stretch blow moulding technology from KHS for decades. The Dortmund system supplier’s tried-and-tested Blomax machines with preferential heating are used to make containers for fabric softener and household detergents in the company’s Laundry & Home Care business unit worldwide – and also now in Germany for shower gel.

“With this measure, we’re consistently aiming to further reduce our ecological footprint throughout our value chain,” says Claus Meyer from Henkel Beauty Care.
 

Thanks to proven KHS technology and a capacity of up to 21,700 bottles per hour, Henkel’s production processes are now even more efficient. The company also benefits from a more flexible logistics setup, confirms Björn von Lengerke, global product account manager at KHS. “You can make the respective containers for the various products yourself. This makes production plans more flexible.” At the same time, fewer resources are used as trucks no longer have to travel lengthy distances – an important consideration when it comes to climate protection.
 

As a reliable partner, KHS is helping to make Henkel’s portfolio more sustainable. Thanks to the former’s holistic Bottles & Shapes™ container design consultancy program, the customer’s 250-millilitre bottle now consumes 14% less material than previous versions – while maintaining the required bottle quality. The bottles also consist entirely of recycled PET, with 25% of this being what is known as Social Plastic[1].
 

“We’re planning on also increasing this percentage in other containers in the future in order to make our entire portfolio even more eco-friendly,” says Christian Bauer, managing director of Henkel’s Wassertrüdingen production site. By 2025, for instance,100% of Henkel’s packaging is to be recyclable or reusable.[2]
 

Even with high recyclate contents of up to 100%, extremely oval bottles can be formed, according to KHS expert von Lengerke. “In the preferential heating method preforms are first heated in the heater as they rotate. In the downstream section, rotation is then stopped so that only certain areas of the PET preforms are heated further.”
 

A heater box specially designed for this purpose transfers the required heating energy through opposite heater levels. “This optimizes the material distribution and stability of the bottle,” von Lengerke continues. This process has various advantages not only in the beauty care range but also when processing cleaning agents, laundry detergents or personal care products that are very often filled into oval PET bottles.

This content was sponsored by KHS Group. 

Quoted from “packagingeurope.com” of March 16, 2022

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Comments from Hautek:
The key technical point is:

During preferential heating the preforms are heated in the heater as they rotate. In the downstream section rotation is then stopped, so that only certain areas of the PET preforms are heated further.

Hautek agrees above point completely. In the year of 2016, we Hautek made 2 sets of automatic stretch blow molding machine model AL-3000S for one of our customer who is making PET bottles for alcohol filling, their alcohol bottle is at flat shape volume from 100ml to 250ml. The same technology is used. The customer is satisfactory with the machine that we supplied.