Disclosed is a method for monitoring a product cycle in the production of plastic containers, wherein a plastic preform is provided and a plastic container with a marking is produced by a blow moulding process, which marking is configured to uniquely identify the plastic container, to wherein the production of the marking takes place during a manufacturing process of a plastic preform or the plastic container.

A thermoplastic resin is molded to define a container bearing a surface 2D code signal, such as a digital watermark pattern. In some arrangements, the mold dimensions are tailored, and process parameters are selected, so that an indentation in the mold gives rise to a corresponding indentation—rather than a corresponding protrusion—in the shaped plastic. In other arrangements, a metal mold is provided with a patterned resin on its surface to define the 2D code signal. The resin may take the form of a rigid or non-rigid insert that can be removed or re-worked to change the code signal without changing the metal mold. A variety of other improvements and arrangements are also detailed.

Article having a body portion including one or more walls surrounding an interior space. The one or more walls have an inner surface, an outer surface, a wall thickness, a transparent portion, and one or more aesthetic regions having oblong voids provided between the inner surface and the outer surface within an outermost 70% of the wall, and the one or more aesthetic regions are provided in a predetermined pattern.

A process for angular indexing of a pre-form having a body and a neck. The process includes a step of marking the neck of the pre-form which consists of production of at least one reference point on the neck of the pre-form. The process also includes a step of a heating station taking charge of the pre-form, during which the pre-form is transported along a heating course by a support unit, known as a spinner, which makes it possible to turn the pre-form around its axis, and during which the body of the pre-form is heated. The marking step is carried out during the step of taking charge, when the pre-form, supported by a spinner, travels along the heating course.

A system and method for autonomously defining regions of interest for a container are provided. The system comprises a platform for supporting the container, a detector for capturing feature data of the container while on the platform, and a computer system. The computer system is in communication with the detector and platform. The computer system is programmed to locate features of the container from the captured feature data, and define the regions of interest for the container based on the located features.

A polymeric article includes a body and encoded visual indicia formed on the body. The encoded visual indicia may be scanned to generate instructions. A method of providing the polymeric article includes applying polymeric materials to a mold to provide an article-blank web having formed therein an article preform of a desired shape with encoded visual indicia formed in the article preform.

A laser processing method includes: marking multiple concaves on a surface of a preform before blow molding.

Apparatus for producing plastic containers has a heating device having a transport device for transporting the plastic preforms singly along a predefined transport path. The transport device has a plurality of holding devices for holding the plastic preforms, and at least one heating unit for heating the plastic preforms, wherein furthermore a rotating device is provided which rotates the plastic preforms held by the holding devices and is connected to a forming device, which transforms the plastic preforms transported by the heating device into plastic containers. The apparatus has an alignment device which enables alignment of the rotational position of the plastic preforms with respect to their longitudinal direction relative to the holding devices holding these plastic preforms and/or the apparatus has a rotational position alignment device arranged along the transport path which enables alignment of a rotational position of the holding devices with the plastic preforms arranged thereon.

A resin container manufacturing method includes: forming a first pattern at a first position in a preform to be formed to a resin container, the preform having: a body portion; and a neck portion; forming a second pattern at a second position in the preform based on the first position of the first pattern; and forming a third pattern at a third position in the resin container based on the first position of the first pattern. The forming the first pattern forms the first pattern at one of: the neck portion; or a portion of the body portion in a vicinity of the neck portion.

A resin container manufacturing method includes: forming a first pattern on a preform of a resin container; and forming a second pattern on the preform based on a position of the first pattern on the preform.