This volume on plastics packaging for the consumer market acquaints the reader with the technologies which can be used to convert a limited number of polymers into a myriad of packaging formats, serving a variety of important end-markets — food, beverage, household, and personal care products. Consideration is given to a variety of processes, from injection molding to blown film manufacture to rigid thermoforming and the manufacture of plastic closures. Authors are drawn primarily from industry.

From the Preface: “Plastics are enjoying substantial growth as a packaging medium, at the expense of materials such as glass, metals and paper, and in spite of environmental pressures on plastics materials in general. The growth of plastics packaging is due in no small part to the technologies available to convert available materials into packs of different forms — flexible, semi-flexible and rigid — at high speed, which has had a crucial role in minimising the cost of plastics packaging....”

Target Audience: Packaging technicians and engineers; packaging designers; plant managers; packaging materials buyers, and corporate libraries.

Table of Contents:

Technical and Commercial Considerations

Injection Moulding

Extrusion Blow-Moulding

Injection Blow-Moulding

One-Stage Injection Stretch Blow-Moulding

Two-Stage Injection Stretch Blow-Moulding

Thermoforming Technologies for the Manufacture of Rigid Plastics Packaging

Blown Film

Filling, Labelling and Handleability of Plastic Containers

Plastic Closures Used in the Consumer Packaging Market

Index