Abstract: An easy-opening closure is provided for hermetic sealing of the open end of a packaging container. The closure includes a composite end for being double-seamed to the container and having an interior ledge portion defining a central opening through the closure. The composite end includes at least two polymer layers defining a predetermined peel strength for delamination and a formable substrate layer bonded to the bottom one of the polymer layers and adapting the end member to be double-seamed to the container. The end member has a notch cut into the top polymer layer in the ledge portion which is spaced from and surrounds the central opening. A lidding member covers the central opening and has a portion overlapping and bonded to the top polymer layer in the ledge portion of the end member to define a predetermined bond strength greater than the peel strength of the two polymer layers of the end member.

Abstract: A plastic bottle delabeling apparatus in which a series of heated rolls that are driven at increasingly greater peripheral velocity engage the plastic bottles to flatten and stretch the bottles. While flattening the bottles, the apparatus heats the plastic bottle surface by the contact with the heated rolls, effectively softening the bond of any label to the bottle. The flattened bottle is then passed through a pair of opposed rotating brush rolls which strip the loosened label from the bottle. The rolls are in vertically opposed sets with the peripheral velocity of the sets of rolls being successively greater in the direction of movement of the bottles therebetween.