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KHS and Husky Launch Ultra-Lightweight Factor 101 PET Bottle for Still Beverages
SHERIDAN, WYOMING – June 18, 2025 – In a joint development that sets a new industry benchmark, KHS and Husky Technologies have engineered one of the world’s lightest PET bottles for still beverages. The Factor 101 bottle weighs just 5.89 grams while holding 591 milliliters—equivalent to the standard 20-ounce U.S. format—offering a 30% material reduction over conventional lightweight PET bottles.
Extreme Lightweighting with Full Performance
Building upon the Factor 100 concept introduced at drinktec 2017, the new Factor 101 bottle has been optimized to ensure superior vertical stability through improved shoulder design and reinforced webbing. A base with a pop-in effect further boosts pressure resistance under load.
“With such extreme lightweighting, what’s known as the top load is especially important. This value tells us how sturdy the bottle is from a vertical perspective. It determines whether the container can be stacked or not and survive transportation undamaged.”
The new design exceeds the standard top load threshold of 200 newtons, reaching 220 newtons—remarkable for a still water container of this weight class.
Advanced Collaboration Between Two Industry Leaders
To realize this design, KHS partnered with Husky Technologies, leveraging Husky’s expertise in injection molding systems and decades of cooperation with KHS. The project required exacting specifications in preform profiling and stretching factors during the blow molding process.
“The preform design also needed to be developed further,” emphasizes Osterhold. “The focus here was on the exact profiling of the preform made possible by KHS technology. Focus lamps in the heater on our InnoPET Blomax Series V, for example, make for extremely precise temperature profiling directly under the bottle neck ring. This ensures that no material stays unstretched. In turn, this considerably reduces the amount of plastic used.”
Material Efficiency and High-Speed Compatibility
The Factor 101 bottle can be made entirely from rPET and weighs significantly less than the 7-gram PET bottles typically used for 500ml still water in the U.S. The bottle’s compatibility with high-speed lines—up to 90,000 bottles per hour—was also critical.
“Line compatibility in the high-capacity range of up to 90,000 bottles per hour was a key challenge. The main issues here were conveying, labeling and the secondary packaging. In the shrink tunnel, for instance, special attention had to be paid to the bottle shoulder – and the bottle of course shouldn’t fall over during conveying.”
“Not only the weight but also the time in which the project was implemented are possibly record-breaking,” Osterhold states. The entire development took just four months, supported by close coordination between multiple departments at KHS and Husky.
Market Demand and Global Rollout
Factor 101 was first introduced at the NPE 2024 trade show in Orlando, drawing strong interest from contract fillers and beverage producers in the U.S., Middle East, and South America.
“The bottle in this form is of particular relevance to contract fillers who operate under great cost pressure,” believes Osterhold.
“Factor 101 is an excellent example of how we’re combining Husky’s engineering expertise in preform manufacturing with our proficiency in bottle design and production. Our joint aim is to produce a high-quality, high-performing, lighter weight result than either of us could do working on our own. Or, as I like to put it: for us, one plus one is greater than two.”
“We see great benefit in combining our technical expertise and envisage leveraging this for future projects. Here, Factor 101 acts as a starting point for discussion of a lightweight program and optimization of current packaging systems and solutions.”
“We aim to combine more cost-efficient preform and bottle manufacture with improved performance – also above and beyond Factor 101.”
“We’re joined by a common spirit and goal – namely working towards developing sustainable packaging.”
Learn more at www.khs.com.