Every year, 500 billion plastic bottles are produced worldwide, a number that requires enormous amounts of plastic. But how are Coca-Cola plastic bottles exactly manufactured? In this video, we will show you the process of transforming petroleum into a Coca-Cola plastic bottle. Many of these transparent bottles are made from a type of plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate.
In fact, 50% of Coca-Cola products are packaged in plastic bottles, and this material comes from crude oil. This crude oil is transported to the environment by the environment. in tankers specifically designed for this purpose with each of these tankers capable of carrying up to 2 million barrels of oil once extracted from the depths of the earth and pumped to the mainland it is directed to massive refineries the issue lies in the fact that crude oil consists of various hydrocarbon molecules mixed with impurities such as salt, sulfur, and traces of metals. To make this oil usable, its different components must be separated.
In refineries, the liquid crude oil undergoes a decomposition process into a wide variety of components, each with different sizes, weights, and boiling temperatures. This is achieved by heating the crude oil to over 400 degrees Celsius to evaporate it and then introducing the result. resulting gases into a 15 meter tall distillation unit.
As these gases cool down, heavier high boiling point fuels like diesel condense first, followed by gasoline. The lighter fuels, such as propane or ethylene used for making plastic, rise to the top. After this process, ethylene solidifies and takes the form of small polyethylene pellets.
These plastic granules are subsequently used to make products like water bottles and 2 water soda bottles. Every day, seven trucks loaded with polyethylene pellets enter the factory. Once inside, the 25 tons of material are pumped into massive 300 cubic meter silos.
Plastic bottles, though lightweight, need to be sturdy as they contain carbonated beverages under high pressure. Therefore, a special manufacturing process is required to create flawless plastic bottles. This plastic bottle manufacturing process consists of two phases, creating a preform and then transforming it into a bottle. Firstly, to create a preform, the factory pours polyethylene pellets into an injection molding machine. Within this machine, a corkscrew shaped drill pushes the pellets into a heater that melts them at a temperature of around 290 degrees Celsius.
Then, the liquid plastic is injected into a mold, creating the first stage of the plastic bottle known as a preform. The molten resin is molded through a matrix to form a form a hollow tube. The matrix is a tool that shapes the molten material as it passes through it. Once molded, the preforms are rapidly cooled before being placed on a conveyor belt. The factory has 15 of these injection molding machines, and together they can produce over half a million preforms per hour.
An essential part of these preforms is the neck support protrusion on the neck, which is used for handling them throughout the blow molding process and as a handle when they are filled. The preforms are also used to hold the preforms harden almost instantly thanks to an integrated cooling system. These preforms are like deflated balloons that will take the form of bottles when inflated.
To make them flexible, they undergo a heating process at around 115 degrees Celsius, and once they are soft enough, they are inflated like plastic balloons by toothed wheels that transport them over the neck supports to the molds. The next stage for the preforms is the reheat stretch blow molding machine. These are stainless steel molds that will transfer the molding machine to the machine. transform the preforms into bottles. Once installed, each mold creates two bottles simultaneously.
The molds are cooled by a liquid cooling system, with cold water entering through a blue hose and hot water exiting through a red hose. In a matter of seconds, the preforms are heated enough for the plastic to become malleable, and then they are stretched longitudinally while high-pressure air is injected, forcing the preform into the bottle-shaped mold. The mold shape determines the final shape of the plastic. plastic bottle and cold water is introduced inside the mold to rapidly cool and harden the plastic.
The end of the mold is kept at a low temperature thanks to the cold water, giving the bottle its final shape. When the bottle touches the outer edge of the mold, it is ready and finished. This extremely fast machine produces over 10,000 bottles per hour, with 40 bottles created with each revolution. Once the bottles have been formed and molded, they undergo a cooling process to solidify the plastic, and fix the shape. A special conveyor machine powered by air transports the bottles over a kilometer of tracks to the end of the pallet area where they are stacked and shipped to the coca-cola bottling plant in less than 24 hours these two liter plastic bottles freshly arrived from the factory must be aligned before being filled the alignment process is carried out by a machine known in the industry as a depalletizer, which uses a conveyor belt to move the finished bottles to the packaging area.
The bottles continue their journey through the transportation system, held in place once again by the neck support protrusion. Then, they are flipped over, cleaned with a burst of ionized air to remove any residue and neutralize accumulated static charges. Next, a printed label is applied and affixed in place. The final step takes place in the filling room, where the process ensures that the product is distributed evenly and consistently in each bottle. Despite being new bottles, the soda factory must clean them before filling.
This rinsing process involves flipping the bottles, rinsing the bottles, and then filling rinsing them with water, and then draining them before turning them back upright. Afterward, the bottles are directed to the filling station. Meanwhile, in the mixing room, technicians prepare the soda that will be bottled in this production batch.
The beverage is transferred to a pressurized tank called a carbonator, where an injection of carbon dioxide introduces gas bubbles into the drink. The carbonated soda is sent to the bottling tank. The machine removes the air from each bottle, and then fills them with 2 liters of Coca-Cola.
More than 800 bottles are filled per minute. The filling valve first pressurizes the bottle to equalize the pressure in the filling nozzle. It takes one full rotation of the wheel to completely fill a bottle.
The Coca-Cola inside is very cold, at around 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, to maintain product stability and prevent foaming due to heat. When the bottles are released from the filling valve, they depressurize and are sealed. sealed with caps, thousands of which are introduced into the filling machine. Once filled and sealed, the bottles go through an inspection process to ensure they are properly sealed.
Finally, the bottles are packed into boxes or pallets for transportation and distribution. If you enjoyed this video, don't hesitate to give it a like and share it with someone who might be interested. Additionally, we invite you to subscribe to this channel and activate notifications to continue learning.