Review: PETinar Preview NPE Show 2024
In the run-up to the NPE trade fair in Orlando, the companies Avient, Intravis and Sipa presented new technology highlights online, which they showcased later at the trade fair in Orlando. In this one-hour PETinar, Ruari McCallion, Editor at PETplanet, first welcomed Damaris Piraino, Senior Director, Trade Show Marketing at Plastics Industry Association, to give an insight into what visitors could expect.
Damaris proudly announced that the NPE2024 show floor spans 1.2 million net square feet and boasts over 2,200 exhibiting companies. Attendees came from across the United States and more than 125 countries. She added that 800 exhibitors participated for the first time in the NPE show. As sustainability and everything associated with it would be an important topic at the trade fair, 10,500 square metres of space were reserved for recycling demonstrations alone. To this end, the NPE organised a brand-new NPE Sustainability Hub where attendees could experience the plastics circular economy, from raw materials to go-to market consumer products. In addition to that more than 150 education sessions featuring 210 expert speakers would take place.
The largest of the six zones at NPE2024 will be the Bottle Zone, said Damaris. This hall exclusively provides equipment or services to produce plastic bottles, PET preforms, blow moulding machines, moulds, labelling, filling, caps and closures, as well as bottle design technology and inspection equipment. Around 100 exhibitors would present the latest technologies in the field of filling and containers. She concluded by inviting all participants and interested professionals from the plastics industry to take part in the trade fair and take a look at the rest of the framework programme of NPE.
The topic of the presentation by Sandrine Reboux, Senior Marketing Manager for Personal Care, Home Care Markets and Digitalisation at Avient EMEA, was ‘Several ways to improve the recyclability of packaging’. Sandrine Reboux began by explaining how to design a recyclable product and challenges associated with recycled content. She emphasised three points that are important in the production of recyclable packaging. She mentioned that, if possible, materials should be used that are easy to recycle and compatible with the existing recycling infrastructure, mono-materials and materials such as PE, PP or PET. The second point Sandrine mentioned was the consideration of design features that support and improve sorting in existing processes. Finally, she referred to the Design for Recycling guidelines such as EPBP & RecyClass for the European market and the APR guidelines for the American market, which offer criteria and analysis tools to produce packaging that is as recyclable as possible.
Sandrine then addressed the current problems facing processors of post-consumer recycled material. She highlighted the problems of contaminated resin bales and the reduced mechanical properties that occur due to multiple heat histories of the materials. Barriers and impurities, as well as adhesives, can cause discolouration and specks, she explained. Rheological control is also more difficult as the IV and melt flow of the material varies.
“The challenges for the converter lie in the availability of post-consumer recyclate on the current market, as this is limited and the quality of the recyclate varies. This makes it difficult to integrate PCR into a cycle. Variability in PCR colour makes it difficult to incorporate into applications where colour targets are strict, and sustainability targets are also difficult to meet under these circumstances,” Sandrine stated. With its Renew Portfolio Avient solves these problems. In the CycleWorks Innovation Center in Milan, Italy, recycling trials and field testing is done, colourants and additives are added to a mechanical recycling process for evaluation and screening. The center is also used for R&D projects together with customers, Sandrine added. As one example to enhance recycling and increase recycling content in the food and beverage packaging Sandrine presented the ColorMatrix Optica process aid and toner for bottles containing recycled PET (rPET). This toner provides superior aesthetics and reduces yellowing during later recycling in comparison to conventional toners. It also includes a process aid that reduces energy consumption during bottle blowing, resulting in lower CO2 emissions. The tool for achieving the desired colour in a PCR package is Avient’s PCR Color Prediction Service, a guiding system to the maximum possible recyclate content and the required colour concentration. It helps to understand the PCR resin Gamut and to frame the available colour space based on the PCR characteristics including opacity and undertone. The PCR Color Prediction Service speeds up the colour development process by reducing lab iterations based on the data generated by the colour prediction tool. It can be used for polyolefins, PET and styrenics. The last point Sandrine mentioned was the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) calculator. Avient’s PCF calculator can calculate the carbon footprint of products from ‘cradle to gate’. The calculator is certified by TÜV Rheinland and complies with the ISO 14067:2018 standard for quantifying and reporting a product’s carbon footprint.
The next speaker was Scott Heins, Director of Sales & Marketing at Intravis Inc. Intravis, known for its inspection systems in the plastic packaging industry, presented its entire range of inspection systems at its own and partner stands.
The Cap Watcher Q-Line was presented together with Netstal on a Netstal Cap-Line with a clamping force of 4,500 kN. Scott said that the Cap Watcher Q-Line has been optimised for faster production environments. The cap inspection system can inspect up to 80 caps per second. This includes an all-round inspection of the closures for common defects and problems, including temperature measurement and non-contact micro-hole inspection. It also measures the number of cavities, coupled with a cavity-related evaluation of the measurement results.
At the Milacron booth, a production line for 5-gallon IML pails will be showcased. The IML Watcher inspects every detail of the in-mould label and checks for short shots at the pail’s edges. The system conducts a thorough quality control inside the pail for defects such as blow-byes and contaminations. This IML solution is also used in the medical industry.
Scott went on with the introduction of the Label-Watcher 360°. A system for the 360° quality control of labels applied on both standard and uniquely shaped products, regardless of the rotational position of the products. Apart from typical label quality inspections, the Label-Watcher 360° provides code reading and conducts various inspections at the bottle’s opening. Scott explained that, thanks to its user-friendly and easy-to-handle user interface and the assistance of the Wizard software known as “Assistant 360°”, setting up new products can be done in a few simple steps by any machine operator. The compact footprint of the Label-Watcher 360° is a distinctive feature. Its sleek design allows for seamless integration at any point behind the labelling machine, ensuring a flexible and space-saving solution. Also presented at the Intravis booth was the SpotWatcher Customized. Scott emphasized that this is a proven system for the inspection of blow-moulded plastic bottles and containers. Recently, it has been upgraded with a sleek slash design. Scott said that thanks to the new design, the Spot Watcher boasts faster delivery times without compromising quality. Its modular profile frame and adaptable enclosure allow for easy adaptation to meet individual customer needs. The system offers a range of inspections for identifying material and contour defects, material inserts as well as colour streaks. It measures the dimensions in the thread area. At the time of the PETinar, details of the preform inspection at the booth of Husky Technologies were still a secret, but at NPE, a closed-loop application for automatic color adjustment was unveiled.
The final speaker, Paolo De Nardi, Product Manager Stretch-Blow Moulding at Sipa, enriched the audience with an exciting introduction to growth trends in complex plastic packaging. According to Paolo, there will be a total of 34.5 billion packages for spirits in 2024. Rigid plastic packaging will account for 9% and 99% of rigid plastic packaging will be PET. The CAGR of 2024 to 2027 for total packaging is 2% and for PET 2.3%. He continued that in 2024 there will be a total of 106 billion packaging units for home care products. In this case, rigid packaging will account for 34%, of which 29% will be made from PET. The CAGR 2024-2027 for home care products will be in total at 2,5% and 2,7% for PET. Finally, beauty & personal care packaging has the highest growth rate of 162 billion packaging units. Rigid plastics packaging will have a share of 44%, of which 14% goes to PET. The growth rate is lower than spirits & home care with a CAGR from 2024-2027 of 1,9% in total. PET will have a share of 2.4%.
Paolo stated that Sipa is prepared with its systems for challenging packaging. He named the Xform system to produce preforms, the Xtra rotary blow moulding system, the SLF linear blow moulding system and the ISBM system, called ECS SP. Sipa’s systems presented at the NPE show are a Xtra 10PH and a SFL Flex linear blow moulding system. Paolo said that Sipa’s Xtra rotary blowing system offers industry leading benefits, including the flexibility to produce a wide array of containers at high speed (standard, complex, hot-fill, large sizes, asymmetrical with preferential heating), with high energy efficiency. Additionally, the SFL Flex linear blow moulding system is able for producing virtually all types of containers, in a compact and flexible way. Paolo highlighted some unique benefits of the Xtra system. Its quality is characterised by solid kinematics and easy handling of the preforms. The flexibility is visible through hot and cold filling on the same machine. It has preferential heating for oval containers and can process rPET, TiO2, PP, bio-based resin also for large containers (up to 12 litres). The Xtra also has an advantage in terms of sustainability thanks to a large energy saving green-oven and the system need less blowing pressure. There is a reduction in air consumption and air recovery is incorporated. With a ultra quick tool-less mould change-over (30”per cavity) and a new HMI the Xtra is easy to use.
Paolo mentioned special features for complex packaging. He focussed on preferential heating. The PH EVO is available for SFL and XTRA. With the 5D PH from Sipa, full control of preform heating is visible on the HMI.
The 5D PH is composed of cylindrical heating where a preform can be heated 360° homogeneously, using the 8/9 lamps; oval heating where the preform is heated more, specifically on opposite (180°) portions; the mixed heating, a cylindric and oval heating; the not axial-sim heating which allows to use different lamp power for a further customized heating and finally the a not axial-slim cooling where different ventilation in the PH side is possible. Finally, Paolo stated that the Sipa PH EVO oven is a combination of all these options. All the oven configurations (every single lamp, and all ventilation power) are set-up and stored in HMI. It’s easy and repeatable to restore multiple special conditioning.
Have a look at the recording and download the presentations at PETinars 2024!
