In addition to its 16-, 24- and 32-oz PET jars, Burleson also fills a 12-oz PET container shaped like a bear. It's shown here, on the left, next to the low density polyethylene bottle it replaced.
Weighing in at 21g, the PET bear represents a considerable achievement in injection stretch/blow molding. Unlike a relatively straight-walled jar or bottle, the bottle is shaped to show the bear's nose, ears and arms. Stretching a PET preform into such recesses in a blow mold at acceptable speeds is no mean trick, says Jim Parker of Parker Plastics (Pleasant Prairie, WI), the company that makes the bottle for Burleson.
"We worked with Sidel to develop a preform specifically designed for making a honey bear," says Parker. "The geometry has to be just right."
Like Burleson's other three PET containers, Parker uses the SBO 2 F to produce the bear. But the bear is not made in the master mold carrier. It requires its own mold.
"We made the mold with Parker," says Michel Picondet at Sidel (Norcross, GA). "We spent a lot of time on the undercuts and to create the 'fur,' for instance."
The three black dots for eyes and nose are not made in the blow mold. They're applied off-line on equipment Parker designed in-house.
The bear containers take the same 38/400 flip-top dispensing closure as the other containers.
