Every day the number of enterprises producing food and various drinks is increasing. Most of them need packaging. It often happens that a factory for the production of plastic bottles or containers is located in a neighboring city or even further. And this is unprofitable for manufacturers.
Plastic Bottle Production
Today, this industry is considered a fairly profitable niche in the market. There are many areas for the use of plastic containers; the demand for PET bottles is constantly growing. However, you should not count on an easy start in this business, as competition intensifies every year. Perhaps twenty years ago, few people could have imagined that low-alcohol and carbonated drinks, milk, vegetable oil, beer, wine, juices and even household chemicals would be sold in PET containers.
Due to the low cost, the production of plastic bottles successfully displaces glass analogues. In addition, this container is shockproof, it is easy to transport. Today, many entrepreneurs producing juices or carbonated drinks have stopped buying PET bottles from intermediaries. They began to make containers themselves, which, it turns out, is much more profitable. After all, gradually the production of plastic bottles can be expanded so as to cover their needs and sell.
Raw materials
Before you can pour anything into a plastic bottle, it must go through several steps. First, preforms are made from granulate - special raw materials, which are a kind of workpiece. From them then the container is blown out. These two production cycles are completely different. Each of them requires separate equipment and specially trained personnel.
Plastic bottle production uses raw materials such as polyethylene terephthalate. During the polymerization, PET molecules are combined into larger ones, and when this mixture reaches the required viscosity index, it is cooled to prevent discoloration or depolymerization.
Moreover, this raw material is a thermoplastic, i.e. it does not deform and does not collapse when reheated. Since PET is a hygroscopic polymer, as the temperature rises, the water remaining inside can hydrolyze the polymer molecules, resulting in a decrease in the strength of the bottle. Therefore, before molding, all excess moisture must be removed.
Technology
When the raw material is completely ready as a result of plasticization, the molten plastic is subjected to a processing process. To do this, it is placed in a special form, inserting a steel rod into it.
High pressure air “shoots” through the mandrel, resulting in a uniform distribution of this melt along the walls of the mold.
The air pressure at any point should be the same, so the procedure is performed as quickly as possible, otherwise the plastic bottle may turn out to be deformed.
The forms are cooled by blowing with air or liquid carbon dioxide. The bottle has a concave bottom shape to give it stability, and so that it can stand, during molding, a bulge is formed in the lower part of the workpiece.
After that, all defects formed as a result of plastic flowing through the cracks of the mold are removed.And after cooling, the bottles are taken out of the mold, sent to a moving conveyor, where the products are sorted. As a rule, up to twenty-five percent of plastic containers are rejected: containers are sent for recycling.
Profitability
Those entrepreneurs who produce glass containers know how unprofitable it is to work at acceptable capacities with lots of less than a million cans. At the same time, the technology used to produce plastic bottles makes it possible to turn on the machine for thousands of pieces.
If you calculate how much a PET bottle weighs in relation to a glass counterpart, you can imagine what difference in profit is obtained by such items as transportation costs and expenses for the purchase of raw materials, since the manufactured products do not break and do not require money for boxes for transportation. In addition, the product can be represented in a wide range of colors, and if the volume or design changes, it will require much less material costs and time: it will be enough just to replace the mold.
The production of plastic containers, including bottles, does not require large areas. Therefore, everything can be organized directly next to the bottling line, for example, juices or beer. According to experts, the profitability of this type of production is approaching one hundred percent, and its payback is six months.
To start the production of plastic bottles at the initial stage, about six hundred thousand rubles will be required. The number of employees will depend on the equipment purchased. As a rule, at low capacities this is a maximum of three people.
Room
For the production of plastic containers, you can rent a room with an area of about thirty square meters. There are certain requirements for the height of the ceilings - at least four meters, for the floor - tiles or concrete, and for the walls, which must be finished with non-combustible material. Excellent ventilation is required in the room, as well as connection to a three-phase electric network and to a water supply system.
Equipment for the production of plastic bottles
Machines must be selected in such a way as to be able to provide sufficient supply and withstand competition in the market.
Production is either single- or two-phase. In the first case, the preform is produced in the same place where the bottles are formed. A distinctive feature of this equipment for the manufacture of plastic bottles is that before blowing, the preform retains high temperature.
In the two-phase case, production is carried out in two stages. The preform is transferred from the machine, where it is directly manufactured, to another machine, on which blowing is carried out. This method is much more convenient, since its size is twelve times smaller than that of a finished plastic bottle. Thus, the preform can be stored in this form until it is needed.
Necessary aggregates
The productivity of medium-power equipment is one thousand five hundred units of finished products. In many ways, the process of manufacturing plastic bottles depends on the particular purpose of the container. If the company produces only a small amount of drinks, then it is more profitable to use the simplest mechanism, otherwise - two-phase equipment.
The simplest list of necessary units is as follows:
- a furnace where the preform is heated;
- apparatus for blowing bottles;
- Press form;
- compressor.
Features
Few people know that equipment for blowing plastic containers is quite energy-intensive. For example, an automatic machine that produces three thousand bottles per hour consumes an average of up to 25 kW, requiring a powerful compressor with a pressure of up to 40 bar. Thus, you need to be prepared not only for the need to purchase an expensive unit, but also for large costs of electricity. 
In addition, when packing such food products that have a short shelf life, such as milk, the hygienic performance of the equipment is also important. Only high-quality filters should be installed on it so that oil mixtures do not get into the inflation chamber.
Another feature that someone who opens the production of plastic containers should know is the mass of the preform from which the PET bottle is obtained.
Its price and possible costs in the process of work directly depend on this indicator. High-quality equipment is considered that allows you to produce a liter bottle from the preform weighing up to thirty-five grams.
