Owen-Illinois’ Plastishield Glass Bottle/Plastic Label Technology
Location 57
Owner: Margy Trumbull
This early Plastishield TM glass bottle coated with a foamed polystyrene plastic wrapper/label was developed and manufactured by Owens-Illinois, Inc. during the early 1970’s. The first Plastishield TM bottles were designed with a wide mouth opening for easier drinkability, but the wide mouth glass bottle/foamed label experienced little commercial success because of the high-cost closure, which also had sealing reliability issues. This Plastishield TM bottle was initially designed to offer optimal pressure strength while allowing the reduction of the glass bottle’s weight, and the bottle was prelabeled in-line to eliminate the normally costly off-line labeling operation. The containers were produced on O-I’s then-state-of-the-art glass bottle forming machines, filled directly on high-speed filling lines, and prepackaged in O-I’s own low cost, patented, and proprietary Contour Pak TM 6 or 8-multipack containers. Plastishield TM was not only a successful Glass Container Division product, but it also generated significant revenue for O-I’s Lily Division (eventually renamed the Component Products Division) that supplied both the polystyrene foam wrap labels and the Contour Pak TM thermoformed polyethylene carriers used to package the Plastishield TM bottles for sale. O-I’s Closure Division also benefited from the Plastishield TM bottle technology and business development because the roll-on aluminum closure was manufactured by the Closure Division and was integral to the Plastishield TM bottle technology commercialization strategy. O-I also licensed the Plastishield TM technology to its glass bottle competitors which generated additional license royalty revenue for the Glass Container Division.