PETinar review: special edition live at NPE Show 2024 

Without a doubt, the NPE was the most important event for the global plastics processing industry this spring. To enrich the visit to the fair, the PETplanet team organised a three-day conference. As a special edition of the PETinars, PETplanet put together a varied and comprehensive programme on the event stage in the Bottle Zone.

Opening the three-day PETinar conference series, Icis provided the latest updates in the US virgin and recycled PET market. The presentation was followed by Erema talking about its PET recycling technologies and observations on the US market. The day was rounded off by the Italian machine manufacturer Sipa, presented its new high-end preform and bottle equipment.

The second day of the conference was dedicated to the production, filling and capping of PET bottles. Mould manufacturer Röders Tec presented its new bottom moulds for SBM. Industry heavyweight Krones talked about its latest filling technologies, and Sacmi, a supplier of machines and complete lines for the ceramics, metal, packaging and plastic container industries, discussed its new capping technology and explain its AI-based production processes.

The last day of the conference was all about sustainable and efficient packaging. Here, PTI reported on its latest PET bottle design projects. KHS, a provider of filling and packaging solutions for glass and PET bottles, cans, drums and pouches, approached the subject of difficulties for PET bottlers and bottle manufacturers to maintain a sustainable and profitable business and present its solutions. Maguire concluded the conference with a presentation on technologies for perfect material handling to meet the current challenges in the plastics processing industry.

Below you will find information about the speakers and their presentations for download!

Ms Emily Friedman, Recycled Plastics Senior Editor at ICIS

CV: Emily Friedman is an experienced sustainability leader and market editor, driven by a passion for people and the planet. In her current role, she exposes market trends and provides thought leadership for the North American recycled plastics industry. Prior to ICIS, she was a corrosion expert and reliability engineer at ExxonMobil, serving both refining and petrochemical operations. Friedman has been recognized by the Society of Women Engineers for her extraordinary commitment to inclusion and diversity.

Topic: A market in transition- key drivers of the US rPET industry > PRESENTATION ON REQUEST

Mr Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager – Application bottle at Erema

CV: After working as an engineer in the automotive industry he joined Erema in 2001 and was responsible for automatization of large, mainly PET- Recycling plants. All along more and more Polyester sparks his interests and so he assumed control of the PET recycling plants, the so called Vacurema in the year 2007 as Product Manager. Since then, he was responsible for product development, technical sales and customer care in this application field. Meanwhile, with more than 20 years of experience in the plastic industry he is member of PETCORE (PET Container Recycling) Europe since 2007 and represents the Recycler’s interests in the Board of PETCORE since 2011. In 2014 Erema- Group introduced the new Business Development Department where Christoph strategically steers in total 7 companies / Business Units in his Application “Bottle”.

Mr Paolo De Nardi, Product Manager Stretch-Blow Moulding at Sipa

CV: Paolo De Nardi received a degree in Materials Engineering in Padua University in 2003.  He joined SIPA in the same year. He has over 18 years’ experience in packaging development and machine development in industrial goods production. His functional experience includes R&D, product development as well as sales and marketing. In his current position as product manager, he manages new developments on both linear and rotary stretch blow moulding. As well he manages the packaging development team, to optimise beverage bottles and innovate special containers.

Mr Jürgen Röders, Managing Director at Röders Tec

CV: Jürgen Röders was born in 1964 in Hamburg, Germany. From 1984 until 1989 he studied mechanical engineering in Munich, Aachen, and Bosten, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1989 to 1991 he was Trainee in the production of the BMW AG in Munich. He left Munich and started as the first engineer in the development of high-speed-cutting milling (HSC) machines and become later the Managing Director of Röders GmbH in Soltau. 

Mr Jochen Forsthoevel, Product Manager Plastics Technology at Krones

CV: Jochen Forsthoevel graduated at the RWTH Aachen University in chemical and biochemical engineering and worked 10 years for an injection molding machine supplier. With the Krones Plastics Technology since 2005 he worked in many projects often including lightweighting, material and preforms, starting in Process Technology and since 2014 in the Product Management.

Mr Ankur Boruah, Regional Sales Manager – Vision Systems at Sacmi USA

CV: Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology USA, Mr. Ankur Boruah joined Sacmi in 2021 providing customer support for Computer Vision Systems developed by Sacmi. Communicate with customers and interpret their needs for Vision Systems software and relay the information to developers in SACMI headquarters in Italy. Since 2023 moved into sales, becoming Regional Sales Manager for Vision Systems at Sacmi USA.

Mr Dan Durham, Director of Technical Client Services at PTI

CV: Dan Durham is the Director of Technical Client Services at PTI. He has decades of experience in plastic packaging ranging from design to injection and blow molding processing.  He currently focuses his efforts on helping multinational brand owners successfully navigate packaging projects from concept to commercialization and supporting their sustainability goals. His material expertise includes PET and other traditional resins such as PP and HDPE, and biopolymers.

Mr Sebastian Wenderdel, Business Development Director PET at KHS

CV: His career started in the collecting department in the Mexican branch office of a large German industrial group, where he started dealing with customers and discovered his passion for sales. He returned to Germany in 2007 and spent over 16 years in international Sales and Business Development positions for several market leading machine manufacturers, mainly in the plastics industry and mostly with KHS. He has been involved in numerous packaging and machinery development projects, contributing important inputs from global PET customers and helping KHS to further improve technological solutions for their partners. Since February 2024, Sebastian assumed the position of Business Development Director PET at KHS USA and leads a team of professionals that covers KHS’ PET business in the North American market, incl. Canada, USA, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Mr Fabien Lemesle, Technical Sales Engineer at Maguire

CV: An International Sales Executive with global experience gained from positions in Singapore, Indonesia, France and the UK focusing on technical products. At Maguire Products, my particular focus has been market development for the “game changing” vacuum dryer series, we call, Ultra. I enjoy challenging convention and pioneering innovation and my role at Maguire in the area of technical sales provides an excellent platform to follow my passion.