A container may have a base, a sidewall connected to the base, a bell connected to the sidewall, and a finish connected to the bell. The base may have strap ribs to resist deformation of the base. The sidewall may have recessed columns to resist bending, leaning, crumbling, and/or stretching. The strap ribs and recessed columns may vertically line up along a central axis of the container to communicate forces on the container vertically along the container to continuously resist.

The invention relates to a method comprising, as method steps, a) providing a container blank comprising a blank wall at least partly surrounding a blank interior, comprising i) a multitude of particles, and ii) a liquid in a first proportion of liquid; and b) shaping the container blank thereby obtaining a container comprising a container wall which at least partly surrounds a container interior and comprises a container layer comprising i) the particles of the multitude of particles, and ii) the liquid in a further proportion of liquid;
wherein the further proportion of liquid is less than the first proportion of liquid. The invention further relates to a container obtainable by the above method; to a container having a container layer; to a method of filling and closing one of the aforementioned containers; to a closed container obtainable by said method; to an apparatus; and to uses of a filling machine, of one of the aforementioned containers, of the apparatus and of a multitude of fibers.

Disclosed are preforms which incorporate improvements in the region of the neck and upper segment of the body to allow the production of lightweight containers, such as bottles suitable for containing water or other beverages. In accordance with certain embodiments, the improvements include a thinner neck finish area than conventional bottles, where the thinner area is extended into the upper segment of the body portion below the support ring. Reducing the thickness in these areas of the bottle allows for less resin to be used in forming the preform and bottle.

A forming mold is used when forming a preform, which has a neck portion and a barrel portion, and whose barrel portion is filled with a molding material over the entire axial direction thereof, by injection molding; forming a space part in the barrel portion of the preform to convert the preform into an intermediate molded product; and blow-molding the intermediate molded product to form a hollow container which is a final molded product. The forming mold is equipped with a boring rod which is inserted from the neck portion side into the barrel portion of the preform to form the space part of at least a predetermined depth in the barrel portion.

A method of inspecting a blow molded container having a finish, a base, a body between the finish and base, and etching at the base. The method includes identifying where on the base the etching is located, designating the base as accurately blow molded if the etching is located at a predetermined location of the base, and designating the base as not accurately blow molded if the etching is not located at the predetermined location of the base.

An injection molding mold including a neck mold forming an outer surface of a neck portion of a hollow article, an injection cavity mold forming an outer surface of a body portion of the hollow article, and an injection core mold forming an inner surface of the hollow article, in which the injection core mold includes an outer core mold forming an inner surface of the neck portion including an inner screw portion and, while rotating along the inner screw portion, being movable along a rotation axis thereof, and an inner core mold forming an inner surface of the body portion of the hollow article having a smaller diameter than that of the neck portion and being linearly movable inside the outer core mold along the rotation axis.

Disclosed are preforms which incorporate improvements in the region of the neck and upper segment of the body to allow the production of lightweight containers, such as bottles suitable for containing water or other beverages. In accordance with certain embodiments, the improvements include a thinner neck finish area than conventional bottles, where the thinner area is extended into the upper segment of the body portion below the support ring. Reducing the thickness in these areas of the bottle allows for less resin to be used in forming the preform and bottle.

Tapping assembly for a beverage, including container including a first and second container, wherein the first container has a neck portion and the second container is suspended in the first container, from the neck portion thereof. A neck region of the container is provided with at least one opening in a side wall thereof, preferably in a neck region of the first container, opening into a space between the first and second containers. The assembly further includes a connecting device, connected or connectable to the neck portion, wherein the connecting device includes at least one connecting element for connecting to the at least one opening, wherein the connecting element is connected to a source of pressurised gas.

Disclosed herein, amongst other things, is a method for converting a design of an original preform that is blow moldable to form a container into a converted preform having less molding material that is blow moldable to form the same container. The method includes retaining a neck finish and body of the original preform on the converted preform. The method further includes replacing the original base of the original preform with a converted base having an outer base surface that joins with an outer body surface of the body at an base split-line of the original base and that fits offset within an outer body surface of the original base, whereby the converted preform has a reduced total length, disregarding any gate vestige that may be formed thereon, relative to a total length of the original preform.

A blow molding device is provided in which a preform is injection-molded. The injection-molded preform is temperature-controlled by a temperature adjusting unit, and the temperature-adjusted preform is blow-molded, wherein the temperature adjusting unit has a multistage structure in which an uppermost stage has the highest temperature structure, and the mold surface temperatures of lower stages and other than the uppermost stage are set to be 10 C. or more lower than the glass transition temperature of the preform.