Large‑scale Adoption of rPET Brings New Challenges & Opportunities for Injection Equipment

Global environmental regulations and carbon‑neutral targets of leading beverage brands accelerate large‑scale commercial use of recycled rPET. Nevertheless, recycled PET differs from virgin material. It is prone to thermal degradation under heat, which may cause yellowing or reduced product strength and raises new demands for temperature control and screw design.

New‑generation PET‑dedicated injection molding machines optimize barrel multi‑zone temperature control and screw compression ratio. They shorten material heating time while ensuring full melting to restrain thermal degradation. Many manufacturers have launched models supporting up to 100% rPET for PET preform molding.

Stable processing of recycled plastics will be a key indicator for equipment competitiveness in the future. Machine suppliers shall cooperate deeply with material suppliers to complete full process solutions for recycled plastic molding.