Issue 04/2016

Blow Moulding
Blow molding of WPC bottles
About two years ago, Wonjae
(Jason) Lee, International Business
Department Manager of Doill
ECOTEC Co., Ltd. in Hwaseong (close to
Seoul, Korea) washed his hair and saw
his shampoo bottle. He wondered why
shampoo bottles are only available from
pure plastic? The company, Jason works
for is known for WPC compounds and
products (next to some other products).
So Jason just tried to make bottles from
wood plastic compounds, as wood is just
as familiar to people as is plastic.
Doill Ecotec produces about 10,000
tonnes of WPC compounds and
products per year with 50 employees
on a floorspace of 10,000 m². And Jason
explained that the company is proud of
the stable quality of their products. The
range of finished products comprises
extruded or injection moulded WPC
decking board, pergola, fences, siding,
sound-proof wall profiles, window
profiles, WPC cutting board, WPC chairs,
cosmetics containers, flower pots, ball
point pens and other daily products. And
now also bottles…
After about one year of development, the bottles
could be presented at Chinaplas 2016 in Shanghai.
“Many visitors from all over the world were
interested in the bottles, as well as journalists from
plastic magazines,” Jason proudly told bioplastics
MAGAZINE.
Jason described one of the biggest challenges
in the development phase was finding the optimal
wood content: “If the wood content is too high,
there are technical problems such as burnt
spots or small holes in the bottles,” he
said. “On the other hand, if it is too low,
the final bottle is not as eco-friendly as it
could be.” While too much wood content
leads to lower cost it also leads to lower
properties compared to pure plastic. In
the end, after optimizing the wood content,
process parameters such as screw speed
(RPM), extruder – and mould temperatures
etc. Jason was able to produce functional
bottles.
The main advantage of WPC bottles is
their lower need for conventional plastics.
And Doill Ecotec is only using waste
wood flour, i.e. the saw dust from wood
processing.
Today the company offers WPC bottles in
all shapes, e.g. round, square and oval in
sizes of 1 litre. 200ml and 500 ml are also
already tried and tested. Volumes larger
than 1 litre will also be possible, as Jason
is optimistic enough to tell.
The first square shampoo bottles can
already be found on supermarket shelves
in Korea, and people can buy them via the
internet. Currently Doill is discussing potential
blow moulding applications with customers from
the packaging and the cosmetics sector.
Jason Lee: “As Nike’s slogan Just do it I just
did it. And I hope that many readers and plastic
product manufacturers will develop many kinds of
biobased plastic products. We should care for our
earth and also resolve environment problems.” MT
www.doillecotec.com
16 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/16] Vol. 11