Construction & Material Science of the Smilo Bottle

When selecting the material for our bottles, we focused on what would offer superior safety and performance for our customers.  We ultimately landed on polyamide (PA) as the material would offer critical advantages over cheaper alternatives that are commonly used by “the other brands.”  PA is incredibly light, extremely durable, has a crystal clear look, and most importantly, is great for use both at home and on the go.  Combined with our medical grade silicone feeding nipples we provide one of the safest, and most effective, feeding bottles for our families.

The most common materials used for baby bottles are polypropylene, polyamide, glass, and silicone.  Other less common materials include stainless steel, tritan, and polyphenylsulfone.

Bottles made from polypropylene have a milky transparency, are sturdy, and are the preferred choice for many of the larger baby brands.  Many brands elected to switch from polycarbonate to polypropylene when polycarbonate was found to leach harmful BPA’s.  Not only did the switch to polypropylene mean the creation of new marketing strategies, but also the opportunity to potentially increase profits as polypropylene is a much cheaper alternative to other materials like polyamide (the raw material is about 7X cheaper based on year 2018 prices).  Although the transition to polypropylene would be a significant change for the brand, in the long run brands could profit more by making the bottles from a cheaper material.  Due to polypropylene’s milky appearance, many brands add colorant to the resin to try and improve the look.  By color tinting the material the bottles don’t look as milky…and cheap.

 Bottles made from polyamides have a glass-like appearance, incredible strength, are lightweight, and completely BPA, BPS, BPF and phthalate free.  This high level of transparency combined with its other material properties made it an ideal candidate for the Smilo Bottle.  The clarity allows our families to see exactly how much fluid, milk, or formula they add to the bottles and what is inside the bottle.  The lighter weight means less work for parents and caretakers when carrying bottles around the house or on the road in a diaper bag. Increased material strength reduces any concern of bottles breaking during use, and the chemical safety means providing the best for our families. 

 It should be noted that all plastics including polypropylene and polyamide are not as heat-resistant as glass. We never recommend using microwave sterilization methods, which creates highly volatile temperatures. Instead, we recommend boiling, countertop steam sterilizers or hand washing/dishwasher (top-rack). They are also not scratchproof.  When bottles are scratched inside, you should replace them.  This prevents contaminants from sticking to the bottles.  For this reason, Smilo created an all silicone bottle brush.  In contrast to traditional bristle and sponge brushes which tend to scratch plastic bottles, our all silicone brush will not only get a bottle squeaky clean, when used properly with soap and water, it keeps it scratch free.