Canadian injection moulding equipment and services provider Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, Ontario; www.husky.ca) is to collaborate with bottle manufacturer PET Engineering (San Vendemiano, Treviso / Italy; www.petengineering.com) and closure moulder Corvaglia (Eschlikon / Switzerland; www.corvaglia.ch) in developing what the companies claim is a cheaper way of producing a lighter single-serve PET bottle. The move comes in response to proposed regulatory changes in the Italian market governing the use of single-serve PET containers.

The proposed legislation, expected to be passed in Italy in the coming months and potentially adopted throughout much of Europe, would require all bars and restaurants to serve bottled beverages exclusively and responds to growing food and beverage purity and security concerns.

While the legislation has created a new growth opportunity for single-serve bottles, currently available in Italy in sizes including 250 ml and 330 ml and using preforms in the 16g to 20g range, it would necessitate a new, more efficient approach to making preforms for producing the smaller bottles. The first of several new containers from PET Engineering, a 200 ml bottle for carbonated drinks called the monodose bottle, uses a preform weighing only 10g.