Innovation for Plastic Containers
Johnson Controls introduces plastic bottle technology innovation
December 11, 1986 (PD: 201512)
Johnson Controls Plastic Container Division employees pose with boxes of plastic bottles ready for market in this photograph from the company’s 1986 annual report
The Johnson Controls Briefing newsletter from December 11, 1986 announced that the company’s Plastic Container Division had purchased technology to cost-effectively apply oxygen barrier coatings to plastic bottles and containers.
Johnson Controls was the first manufacturer in the country to have such a process, which coated the exterior of plastic containers to increase shelf life. The high-impact spray system was installed at the Nicholasville, Kentucky facility.
Johnson Controls had entered the plastic container and plastic container machinery business the previous year with the acquisition of Hoover Universal. The company would remain in the plastic container business until 1997, when it sold the division to Schmalbach-Lubeca AG of Germany.
In 1998, the company sold its Plastic Machinery Division as well, to Cincinnati Milacron Inc. for $210 million.
