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Thirteen years of R&D effort have reached fruition with the appearance of a PET bottle of hand soap produced by Amcor’s “game-changing” LiquiForm technology. That technology uses the liquid contents of the container, rather than compressed air, to simultaneously form and fill stretch-blow molded containers. , Ann Arbor, Mich., says this approach offers numerous benefits in reduced floor space and costs for separate blowing and filling equipment, as well as eliminating costs of handling, transport, and warehousing of empty containers at a filling plant.

Because water—a major ingredient of most household products and foods—is much less compressible than air, the LiquiForm process also reportedly improves bottle quality and allows for lightweighting through improved material distribution. (For details, see Sept. ’14 Starting Up and April ’15 cover story.) For this first commercial launch, Amcor Rigid Plastics’
Diversified Products Div. partnered with Greenblendz, Auburn Hills, Mich., a co-packer and developer of private-label consumer products, to develop the 12-oz bottle for Nature’s Promise hand soap. The bottle contains 50% post-consumer recycled PET.

Amcor produced the filled containers for Greenblendz using a proprietary machine built by Amcor, which the company says is the first in the industry to successfully use its LiquiForm technology. Amcor plans to set up operations using its LiquiForm machines near the production of the bulk liquid contents—in a brand or co-packer filling site. It plans to partner with customers to create new sites much closer to the retail point of sale, with the goal of reducing freight costs and increasing responsiveness to demand fluctuations.