How are plastic bottles manufactured by a typical plastic bottle company? Every company has its own process, but for the sake of generalization. Know more!

1. An Insight into How Plastic Bottles Are
Manufactured by Your Typical Plastic
Bottle Companies

2. Introduction
• Irrespective of all the hate plastic receives from environmentalists, the usefulness of
plastic and its diversified applications across various industries are unmatched. In
fact, when it comes to manufacturing bottles, plastic is still the dominant material,
for no suitable replacement has been found yet.
• Many plastic bottle companies have shifted to reusable plastics, but some of are still
sticking to established polymers because their recyclable replacements haven’t been
discovered or invented yet. Round plastic bottles, PET bottles and squeezable bottles
are some of the bottle variants being manufactured.
• But how are plastic bottles manufactured by a typical plastic bottle company?

3. Step 1: Creating Polymers
• Plastics are polymers created using a process called polymerization.
• The raw plastic source, typically PET or any other thermoplastic suitable for
containers, are polymerized to create the main material that is later shaped
into bottles.
• Creating polymers is a delicate process, and any misstep can result in entire
batches being destroyed. The plastic to be made should not react with the
contents of the bottle, so any impurities produced during polymerization need
to be removed completely.

4. Step 2: Testing of Plastic
• The second step involves testing plastic against various elements that are
expected of a typical plastic bottle.
• Common tests include testing for carbon dioxide resistance, pressure
resistance, thickness, gloss etc.
• These tests determine if a particular batch is suitable for molding into plastic
bottles or not. Any batches that fail any of the tests are discarded from
further processing.

5. Step 3: Manufacturing Plastic Bottles
• After the plastics are put through rigorous testing, they are to be molded
into the final shape of the bottle being made.
• To do this, plastic sheets are melted and applied to molds.
• The process of inserting plastic into molds differs from manufacturer to
manufacturer, but injection molding is the most commonly used method.