Krones to commercialise LiquiForm, single-step technology for forming and filling

LiquiForm Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian packaging giant Amcor, has tied up with German filling/packaging equipment maker Krones with a technology licensing agreement to further develop and commercialise LiquiForm’s forming and filling manufacturing technology.

LiquiForm technology combines container forming and filling processes into a single step. The technology uses liquid product instead of compressed air to form a rigid plastic container, a process which offers an opportunity for more sustainable and efficient operations as compared to traditional blow and fill technology.

Benefits include a reduction in the energy for bottling achieved by eliminating the need for compressed air. For standard blow moulding, the air compression cycle is only 35% to 40% efficient and consumes approximately 70% of the total amount of electricity used in the blow moulding process. The LiquiForm process requires a smaller footprint, compared to standard bottle making and filling operations that are typically performed by two separate pieces of equipment. Furthermore, the process optimises PET bottle design both in terms of lightweighting and potentially sharper bottle definition (because better pressure control and material distribution is possible with liquid instead of air which allows for minimum wall thicknesses).

“With the LiquiForm technology, Krones has an opportunity to build on existing bottling technology, intellectual property and know-how to develop unique industrial solutions for improving the total cost of ownership for our customers even further,” said Dr. Christian Compera, head of bottling technology at Krones.

“We are pleased to have Krones as a licensee, given its history of technology and innovation leadership in processing, filling and packaging,” said Ashish Saxena, Vice-President and General Manager of LiquiForm. “Adding to the existing efforts of Sidel, Amcor, and Yoshino, Krones will aid the technology commercialisation and enable LiquiForm to reach its full potential.”

Amcor collaborated on LiquiForm first with French blow moulding machine maker Sidel in 2014. The company since then has signed agreements with Yoshino Kogyosho, Japan’s largest plastic bottle manufacturer, to further develop the technology, and with Nestlé Waters, one of the world’s leading bottle water companies, to acquire the intellectual property.

LiquiForm licenses the technology, which is jointly owned by DISCMA, an Amcor and Sidel joint venture that also owns historic Nestle and Yoshino intellectual property. The LiquiForm Group supports the development of this next-generation packaging solution for products, applications and markets, including beverages, food, and household and personal care.