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.

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.

Provided is a method for manufacturing a preform (1). The method includes injecting into a cavity of a mold through the gate: (i) a first colored resin (R1) for a first predetermined time period, and (ii) a second colored resin (R2), having a color different from that of the first colored resin, for a second predetermined time period.

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.

An injection-molded preform for forming an 8 ounce PET container includes a neck portion configured to engage a closure and having a first wall thickness and an elongated body portion having an upper segment adjacent the neck portion and a lower segment adjacent an end cap. The upper segment has a second wall thickness substantially similar to the first wall thickness. The lower segment has a third wall thickness greater than the second wall thickness. The preform has a total weight less than 7 grams.

A polyethylene terephthalate composition (PET), an injection-molded bottle preform made from a PET composition, a refillable PET container blow-molded from the preform, catalyst compositions used for making the PET composition, methods for making the PET composition, methods for injection-molding a PET bottle preform, methods for blow-molding a refillable PET bottle from a preform and methods for improving the rewash stability and recyclability of refillable PET bottles particularly for carbonated soft drinks are disclosed. The polyethylene terephthalate composition includes a polyester resin containing terephthalic acid, isophthalic acid, ethylene glycol and cyclohexane dimethanol and residual amount of catalytic composition comprising Sb and Ti. The polyethylene terephthalate composition is especially useful for large blow moldings and provides a change in the fill point volume after 5 wash cycles of a 2.5 liter blow molded bottle of 14 ml or less.

A generally hollow preform for making a stretch blow-molded container may include a threaded finish portion; a neck portion depending from the finish portion; a transition portion depending from the neck portion; a main portion depending from the transition portion; and a closed, generally rounded tip portion depending from the main portion. The preform may include stretch ratios with respect to the container including an axial stretch ratio of about 3.0 to 3.5, a hoop stretch ratio of about 5.0 to 5.5, and a total stretch ratio of about 15 to 19.25. In some embodiments, high stretch ratios may be achieved with less material, yielding substantial cost savings.

An innovative neck (301) configuration is suggested in order to reduce the weight of a large container for beverage dispenser. The neck (301) comprises a neck finish (303) which extends in length (Ltot) starting from the wide mouth (302) of the container to an annular support ring (305) and a smooth surface cylindrical portion (306) which joins the annular support ring (305) to the body (309) of the container. For functional reasons, the total length (Ltot) of the innovative neck (301) remains the same as the usual traditional necks for this type of container, but due to the short length (Ltot) of the neck finish (303) and said cylindrical portion (306), the weight is reduced.

A polymer composition of polypropylene copolymer and 1 to 50% by weight of hard resin. The polypropylene copolymer is either an impact copolymer or a random copolymer. The polymer composition can be used to make injection stretch blow molded articles having improved top load strength.