Bapco Closures, a UK-headquartered developer and manufacturer of “next generation” closures, reports growing interest in its new range of Bapco pre-assembled injection moulded closures which, by eliminating the traditional screw neck, reportedly offer brand owners and retailers the opportunity to radically redesign PP, PE or PET plastic packs and reduce individual container weights by between 20 and 35%.
The company, which currently manufactures the closures in the Isle of Man, but will shortly open a second factory in Chicago, says that, typically, every 1g of PET saved in a market of 100m bottles saves 100 tonnes of PET, £80,000 in resin costs, 80,000 kw/hr of energy for preform moulding and 36 tonnes of CO2 being generated. While much of the demand for its closures has so far come from the US, European interest is “gaining momentum”.
Bapco Closures’ trademarked BAP technology is derived from the words “bonded aluminium and plastic”. Bapco closure systems are three-part injection-moulded, and include an overcap, spout or neck and fused foil laminate. After product filling into a bottle, jar or can, the closure is clipped or screwed into position and the closure induction welded on via a patented double induction welding process. When the closure is used in snap-on-form no neck threads are required, meaning a “disproportionately heavy container neck” is no longer needed. Bottles can also be blown with looser tolerances, as the induction welding process “ensures an absolute seal” between neck and closure.
Bapco Closures, which initially developed the technology to address the problem of leaking bottles in the UK dairy market, has expanded its portfolio to include a full range of wide mouth closures. Its induction welding system can be “easily and inexpensively” retrofitted to filling lines, “ensuring leak-proof packaging and exceptional barrier performance”, while a patented, low opening force ring-pull means consumers “still experience easy-opening closures with satisfying tamper-evidence”. The closures are also well suited to higher speed filling, as welding on of the closure takes just 0.6 seconds.
In the first application of its “Twister” 82mm closure, Bapco has worked with blowmoulded packaging manufacturer Graham Packaging to develop a closure for a new PP container for Canadian canned fruit and vegetable processor CanGro Foods, which sells under the Del Monte Brand. The jar’s neck threads have been removed and incorporated into the three-part closure, which has a foil membrane “100% welded into position”. The membrane is removed via an easy-open pull ring; the pack can be resealed with a screw-on overcap. The cylindrical clear PP container has a wide-mouth for easy filling and convenient access.
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Bapco Closures
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Incorporating Bapco’s Twister closures, these wide-mouth clear PP jars for Del Monte fruits are 20% lighter than the previous plastic containers used by CanGro Foods