PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2010

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Landhausstr. 4 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49(0)6221-65108-0 fax: +49(0)6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Doris Fischer f ischer@hbmedia.net Ruari McCallion Tony O´Neill Ilona Trotter Wolfgang von Schroeter MEDIA CONSULTANTS Ute Andrä andrae@hbmedia.net Miriam Kiesler kiesler@hbmedia.net phone: +49(0)6221-65108-0 fax: +49(0)6221-65108-28 France, Italy, Spain, UK Elisabeth Maria Köpke phone: +49(0)6201-878925 fax: +49(0)6201-878926 koepke@hbmedia.net LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Kommunikationsdesign www.exprim.de PRINT WDW Druck GmbH Gustav-Throm-Straße 1 69181 Leimen-St.Ilgen Germany WWW www.petpla.net | w ww.pet-point.net PETplanet insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trade marks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 04/10 www.petpla.net How much theory do we actually need? When theory comes up against practice the outcome may well be a measure of clarity. This was the case at the 25th International Plastics Technology Colloquium hosted by the nstitute for Plastics Process- ing, Aachen, Germany (IKV). This was the year when, for the first time, stretch blow moulding of bottles featured in the Great Hall of the Eurogress in Aachen, a venue where the scientific developments and practical experiences of the automotive manufacturers normally take centre stage. Two interesting presentations from the IKV line-up caught our attention. The first, deliv- ered by Dipl.-Ing Thorsten Leopold, was on the subject of a promising approach to simulat- ing oxygen permeation in PET bottles. The second, from Dipl.-Ing.Karim Bahroun on the brightly illuminated plasma coating of PET, PLA and PP, revealed that there is still a gulf between theory and practice. For example, in the case of oxygen permeation, the interim results as regards theory and practice differed by a factor of 2. Further research will surely enable the men of Aachen to succeed in aligning theory and practice, just as they have so often done before where a number of other plastics issues are concerned. I just wonder whether we in the PET industry are purely and simply tradesmen without any scientific background whatsoever? Have our successes come about solely as a result of performing endless tests? If it is true that the gulf between theory and practice is indeed wide, how much further forward we would be now, I wonder, if we, as the PET industry, had made a start years ago on supporting basic research? How many trials and service life tests could we have saved our- selves? One wonders how much more weight could have been trimmed off the PET bottles by now had the wish expressed by the moderator, Dr. Ing. Klaus Hartwig of Nestle Waters, Vitell, France, to simulate the per- meability of a broad diversity of gases with a very wide range of barrier layers and stretch ratios been met. Without doubt there are still many other PET topics that require a structured scientific study in order to further accelerate the rapid growth in PET bottles. After many decades of practical experience with PET we should at least give theory the chance to catch up. Yours, Alexander Büchler EDITORIAL dear readers, Dr. Ing. Klaus Hartwig of Nestlé Waters, Vitell, France, moderator at the IKV Colloquium