PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2010

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 15 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 04/10 www.petpla.net includes reusable glass bottles and disposable PET bottles, both system-orientated (PET cycle) and without any system orientation. With a capacity of 7.9 millionhl, the company, which has five plants in Germany, ranks as one of the largest bottling enterprises. In 2005 the company decided to set up its own preform production. “Being a beverage filler nowadays, you cannot earn your money on the contents of a bottle. Beyond this you have to consider every possibility to generate potential savings.” Due to short cycle times and low energy consumption, Hansa- Heemann quickly decided to place the order with Husky and Motan. “The efficiency factor for our entire production was planned to be 95%. Now we achieve more than 97%.” “We use far less energy with these new installations. Our invest- ment costs provide a rapid return on investment in a very short period of time,” says engineer Ralph Möller. At the beginning of the 1990s, Hansa-Heemann – emerged from the Nordgetränke GmbH in Hamburg – decided to move their headquarters to Kloster Lehnin. “We wanted to secure the bustling Berlin market and Kloster Lehnin had a good transport connection,” explains the engineer. The first installation for soft packaging, glass and cans had already started produc- tion at the new site in Brandenburg at the end of 1995. At the time PET bottles had a rather slow start in Germany, but three years later the Lehnin staff thought about using plastic bot- tles. In the meantime, German consumers began purchasing at discount supermarkets where more and more PET bottles were displayed. “In 1998 we brought into service our first blow moulding machine which was actually only the third machine of its kind ever built by a well-known manufacturer,” says the branch director. From that point on, production increased steadily in Kloster Lehnin. By 2002 four more blow moulding machines were brought into service. As the demand for glass bottles abated completely, Kloster Lehnin converted entirely to PET within the Hansa-Heemann-Group. The Lehnin staff increased its production from 28,000bph in the very beginning to more than 40,000bph. “We even adapted the existing filling installations to the 0.5l plastic bottles with a minimum of effort,” remembers Mr Möller. “Right from the beginning, preform production was taken into account.” Several calculations were made, right down to the last penny. Due to the bargain-hunting mentality prevalent at that time, there was little chance of making profit on the actual contents of the bottles. “We had to squeeze out sav- ings wherever we could generate more savings potentials,” Möller tells us. To this end, in 2005/2006, Lehnin staff reviewed potential solutions and extended the dialogue with the Luxem- burg site of Husky as well as with Motan. “Our objectives were: to save energy, optimise personnel, improve quality assur- ance, explore the possibility of inline measurements during preform production and fine tune the traceability of records on production data. All these were extremely important factors to us. “ It is exactly this high efficiency factor of the nine new injection moulding installations and ancillary equipment that makes Ralph Möller from Hansa-Heemann AG happy. “As I mentioned before, the production is unobstructed, and energy- wise we are far more efficient. It has all worked out very well.” Enjoy completeness Sacmi Imola S.C. Via Selice Prov.le, 17/a 40026 Imola (BO) Italy Tel. +39 0542 607111 - Fax +39 0542 642354 E-mail: sacmi@sacmi.it www.sacmi.com Sacmi offers turnkey solutions for the beverage and packaging industry: complete bottling lines for product preparation, container manufacture, filling and closing, labelling and final packaging operations. The extensive experience acquired since the company was established in 1919, in addition to its reputation for supplying advanced technology, financial solidity and a network of 70 companies throughout the world, enables Sacmi to meet all your requirements wherever you are.