Have you ever wondered where your plastic bottle of water comes from or how it’s made? Or how that child-proof lock on medicine bottles (that sometimes even you can’t get open on the first try!) is created? There’s a whole industry devoted to building the products that hold our food, drink, medicine, and all manner of other items that we use every day and making them the freshest and safest goods possible. Product packaging manufacturers are constantly seeking out new and innovative ways to keep consumer goods attractive, easy to use, and reliable. Blow molding services are one way that a packaging company might achieve that goal.
What Sort of Packaging Is Done With These Companies?
Pretty much anything you can name is packaged — a plastic packaging company, plastic bottle manufacturing company, and a plastic container company all turn out similar products, but for different uses. Every other industry, from the food and beverage industry to medicine to entertainment uses the packaging industry. The food packaging industry accounts for 70% of the worldwide flexible packaging industry’s market.
This type of packaging also keeps us safe. Tamper proof seals that are designed by these packaging companies let us know if a product has been interfered with and possibly damaged. We know not to use that material because it could possible be unsafe. When a child starts playing with a medicine bottle, child-proof caps keep him or her from opening the bottle and possibly ingesting the drugs which could be harmful to them, even if taken in a low dose.
What Is Blow Molding?
Using blow molding services are how most plastic packaging is made. It creates plastic parts that are hollow inside — so think, your pill bottle or bottle of water. There are a few different types of blow molding services for manufacturers to choose from — injection blow molding, extrusion blow molding, and injection stretch blow molding.
Essentially, the plastic that will eventually form the part gets melted down and formed into a hollow tube (or if using the injection blow molding, it gets put into what is known as a preform). The hollow tube gets put into a mold and air is passed through it, which expands the plastic outward to match the shape of the mold. When the plastic has cooled and set, the mold releases and ejects the part to go on to the next part of the manufacturing process.
What’s the Benefit of Still Using Plastic Packaging?
With today’s technology, a significant amount of plastic packaging can be recycled. Indeed, almost 40% of containers and packages can be recycled — the highest of all industries. Almost 9,500 curbside collection programs and around 10,000 drop-off centers accept PET plastic (the stuff with the #1 code on the bottom) to be recycled for further use. Plastic is still one of the cheapest materials to use as well — so you save costs and the environment when using it!
So next time you look at your water bottle or medicine cabinet, think about the wonderful way that the packaging industry assists us in our day to day lives.