Successful Sports Bottles in Tritan® TX1001

March 2010

Sports bottles have some of the highest fitness-for use requirements for drop impact of
any bottle application. Because of the way in which consumers use them, especially in
outdoor activities, full bottles are expected to withstand multiple drops from heights of
several feet.

Tritan TX1000/1001 is a material commonly chosen for sports bottles because of its
inherent toughness
outstanding clarity
ease of processing on stretch blow molding equipment
dishwasher compatibility.

The material alone, however, cannot assure success. In order to achieve the toughest
sports bottles with the best appearance, proper bottle design and processing are
paramount. The following guide summarizes the most important aspects of the
material, design, and processing. The base design concepts also show general
approaches to isolating the sprue/gate area from flexural stress upon impact.

These guidelines are not intended to be applicable to every sports bottle application
since each application has its own unique requirements for function, cost, and
aesthetics. Experience has shown, though, that attention to these factors, especially in
the design phase, can make the difference between immediate success and success
through iterative steps.

Eastman technical personnel are available to assist and consult with the molders in all
aspects of the material, design, and processing for Tritan® sports bottles.

Neither Eastman Chemical Company nor its marketing affiliates shall be responsible for the use of this information, or of any product, method,
or apparatus mentioned, and you must make your own determination of its suitability and completeness for your own use, for the protection of
the environment, and for the health and safety of your employees and purchasers of your products. No warranty is made of the merchantability
or fitness of any product, and nothing herein waives any of the Seller’s conditions of sale.
Optimizing Toughness and Appearance of Tritan® Sports Bottles

Drying Dry Tritan TX1001 adequately before processing; typically 4-6 hours in
a desiccant dryer at 85-90 C.
Material Melt Processing Minimize degradation of the melt in the barrel due to excessive heat
or residence time. Typically process at 260-280 C.

Preform Preform designs should minimize the amount of axial stretch (1.1 or
less) if allowed by the bottle design, in order to optimize material
distribution and sidewall appearance. Overall stretch ratio, or planar
stretch ratio (PSR), is typically 2-3; but higher ratios may be
accommodated if proper attention is given to processing variables
such as preform temperature, blow pressure, blow timing, etc.
Base Make the heel radius as large as possible to provide a cushion effect
for drops. Typical heel radius is 15-20 % of bottle diameter.
Avoid forming sharp corners on engraved logos or other lettering.
Radii within the base profile should be at least equal to the local
thickness of the base.
Sprue or Gate Minimize and/or trim the preform sprue before blow molding to
minimize notch formation around the sprue vestige. The notch
around the sprue vestige can be a crack initiation site.
If sprue trimming is used, ensure that cuts are smooth without
Design twisting the sprue. Rough cuts or twists can leave features that may
become crack initiation sites.
Use a gate well to aesthetically compress the sprue vestige and
minimize the depth of the notch around the sprue.
Use domes and/or ribs to add structural stiffness to isolate the gate
from flexural stress.
Use a small bubble recess to further isolate the gate area.
Taller domes with smaller diameter are preferred over shallower
domes with larger diameter. Taller/smaller reduces the amount of
flexural stress upon the gate area.
Neck or Shoulder Avoid formation of a sharp fold below the neck as the preform
inflates to form the shoulder. The resulting notch can be a crack
initiation site. Use proper preform temperature and adequate radius.
Sidewall Avoid sharp radii or corners in any design feature, including recesses
for inserted grip panels or decorative parts.
 Preform Conditioning It is desirable to minimize the temperature gradient through the
preform wall to obtain the best aesthetics in the bottle wall. Thicker
preforms and higher stretch ratios may require additional
conditioning or time between injection and blow.
Gate centering Use proper stretch rod timing to keep the gate centered in the base.
Base cooling Use adequate cooling time and temperature to cool the thick area of
the base to minimize shrinkage and flattening of the dome.
Material distribution Avoid thin areas ( < 1 mm) in the blown bottle which can lead to
creases and/or cracks in highly stressed areas.
Minimize initial/primary blow pressure (0.2 - 0.8 Mpa) in order to get
the most uniform material distribution.
Smooth Sidewalls At moderately high planar stretch ratios (2.5 - 4.0), it may be necessary
to use hotter preform temperature (160-165 C) and low blow pressure
Processing (0.1-0.2 Mpa) to achieve sidewall without a mottled or "applesauce"
appearance.
Even though a particular bottle design may have a nominal low PSR,
there may be corners that have a locally high PSR that must be
accomodated by the higher preform temperature and/or lower blow
pressure.
Base details Initial inflation of the preform is preferably done with low blow
pressure/slow rate. However, this may not be sufficient to obtain
good formation of base details. In those cases, it will be helpful to
use two-step blow at low pressure followed by high pressure.
Alternatively, high pressure could be used as long as the blow rate is
slowed so that the initial stretch/inflation is at a low rate. It may also
be necessary to use hotter mold temperature in the base to achieve
the best details.
Base Design Concepts – Protecting the Sprue / Gate Area in Impact

Typical Bottle Base -

1) Large, Shallow Push-up
2) No Gate Isolation

Increase height of
dome

Adds structural resistance to flexing

Decrease diameter of
dome

Reduces total force acting on dome

Add bubble for gate

isolation

Moves gate away from the flexural

plane

Combined Concept