From standard machines to customised solutions in blow moulding
Just a few years ago, most PET bottles manufacturers operated on the principle of selecting serial equipment, installing it, and starting production. Today, however, the industry is undergoing a tectonic shift: customised solutions tailored to specific production needs are coming to the fore.
Did you know that the demand for custom PET blow moulding machines has grown by 30% in recent years? Customisation is no longer just a trendy concept, but a response to the diverse range of standards, applications, and constraints in customer facilities.
Why is it so important? Today's PET packaging market is extremely diverse. European beverage manufacturers, Latin American breweries, or US co-packers all operate in completely different conditions. Climate, quality standards, consumer expectations — all of these factors influence the shape of the bottle, the design of the blow mould, the requirements for blowing speed, and even the equipment configuration. In such conditions, a standard “off-the-shelf” blow moulding machine just loses its effectiveness.
This is where the customisation engineering comes in: the focus is not just on the machine, but on the solution that works for your business. The idea that customisation is just a new bottle shape is long outdated in today’s industry. Modern personalisation is a comprehensive approach that can include:
- Modifications to the control system
- Adaptation of machines to the standards of each company, industry, application or climatic zone
- Compatibility with moulds from other equipment
- Adapting the layout to space restrictions
- Continuous improvement of pneumatic and electrical components in parallel with technological advances
- Availability of the program and manuals in the client’s language
The result for the customer is simple and tangible: consistent quality, predictable costs, confidence in equipment performance, and the ability to quickly adapt to the market.
Today, PET Technologies has numerous real-world projects, where customisation played a decisive role. In each case, the work began with a detailed analysis of the task and ended with a ready-made solution that fits organically into the production process.
In Salvador, for example, our R&D departmеnt enthusiastically accepted the challenge of adapting another manufacturer’s moulds to our equipment. The flexibility we demonstrated allowed us not only to integrate existing blow moulds into the new machine, but also enabled us to significantly reduce the customer’s costs, which usually accompany a change of supplier.
Another notable case was in Slovakia, where we produced interchangeable bottom sets for blow moulds. That allowed the customer to switch easily between bottles for still and sparkling water with minimal setup changes. Similarly, in Hawaii, we adapted our machine's heating system to work with preforms containing rPET, recycled plastic collected from the ocean.
This is the essence of customer intimacy: understanding the customer’s challenges as if they were our own and turning technology into tools for your business growth.
The central part of the PET Technologies exhibition at K 2025 in Düsseldorf will be dedicated to customisation. Visitors to the stand will be able to discuss individual solutions for their own production, see examples of implemented projects, and see how innovations work in a real production environment.