A cluster pack comprises at least two containers connected by a glued joint. One of the containers has a thickened wall region in the region of the glued joint. This region acts as a well reinforcement to reduce the risk of tearing a container during detachment from the cluster pack.

A plastic container is provided that includes a hollow body portion including a lower supporting base portion; a sidewall portion extending upwardly from the base portion; and a neck portion extending upwardly from the sidewall portion. The neck portion includes a support flange having an upper and lower surface, at least one thread, and a dispensing opening at the top of the neck portion. In embodiments, a closure may be provided to form an assembly. In embodiments, the container may be comprised of PET, the weight of the neck portion from the lower surface of the support flange to a top of the dispensing opening may be 3.0 grams or less, and/or the vertical distance from the top of the dispensing opening to the lower surface of the support flange may be 0.580 inches or less. A preform and method for making a container are also disclosed.

A blow mold system including a mold body and a base portion. The mold body includes a central bore extending from a first end of the mold body to a second end of the mold body along a longitudinal axis. The first end is configured to receive a mold preform. The base portion includes a recess, and the base portion is arranged at the second end of the mold body such that the central bore and recess define a blow mold cavity in which a container may be formed from the mold preform. In embodiments, the blow mold system has at least two interchangeable base portions that allow for containers with differently-sized or differently-shaped necks to be formed.

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.

Preform assembly for blow moulding a container, comprising at least a first and a second perform, wherein the first perform is positioned inside the second perform before blow moulding the performs into the container, wherein each perform has a body forming portion having a wall thickness of less than about 8 millimetres, preferably less than about 6 mm.

Disclosed herein, amongst other things, is a molded article, such as a preform that is blow moldable to form a container, and a related method of forming and recycling a container. The structure and steps includes injection molding a molded article having tubular body.

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.

A plastic container includes a hollow body portion including a lower supporting base portion; a sidewall portion extending upwardly from the base portion; and a neck portion extending upwardly from the sidewall portion. The neck portion includes a support flange having an upper and lower surface, at least one thread, and a dispensing opening at the top of the neck portion. In embodiments, a closure may be provided to form an assembly. A preform and method for making a container are also disclosed.

A plastic preform includes a hollow body portion including a closed base portion and a lower portion and a lower portion extending upwardly from the closed bottom portion; and a neck portion extending upwardly from the lower portion. The neck portion includes a dispensing opening positioned at a top of the neck portion, threads positioned below the dispensing opening, a tamper-evident formation having a lower surface and positioned directly below the threads, and a support flange having an upper surface and a lower surface and positioned below the tamper-evident formation. In an embodiment, the plastic preform is formed of a material comprising polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and a vertical distance from the lower surface of the tamper-evident formation to the lower surface of the support flange is from 0.125 to 0.150 inches. Containers and methods for molding preforms and making containers are also disclosed.

Please delete the current abstract and insert the following new abstract: A container includes a flat foot base having a gate centered on a central axis of the container and a sidewall connected to the base and defining a portion of an interior of the container. A plurality of strap ribs are positioned in the base, each one of which extends radially outward toward the sidewall. A plurality of recessed columns are positioned in the sidewall and formed from varying depth sidewall ribs extending along a periphery of the sidewall. Each varying depth rib includes shallow sections and deep sections, the shallow sections having a rib depth less than a rib depth of the deep sections. The shallow sections of the varying depth ribs are aligned to form the recessed columns. At least one strap rib is aligned with at least one recessed column.