PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2010

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 12 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 05/10 www.petpla.net the high season the preform systems run around the clock and in winter 66 percent of the time. All of the preforms are for Bakhresa’s own use. Lawrence Silverious (on the left), Controller of the Bakhresa Group, holds all the reins With such a high consumption of bottles it is also logical to think about caps. After initial trials with injection mould- ing machines the company invested a few years ago in a Sacmi compression moulding machine with 24 cavities. The first Sacmi line, a CCM 24, was installed in 2007. The second line, again with 24 cavities, has just been installed. The cap they produce is for all bottles up to 1.5l. The output is high - 36,000 caps/minute at a 2.4s cycle time. Both CCM lines are producing a 30x25 light-band “hook” closure of about 1.8g, developed by Sacmi, which guaran- tees excellent sealing performance. Recently Bakhresa has started to print the logo directly on the top of the closure (on both lines) and high quality is guaranteed by the fact that compression technology allows the production of caps without the “gate scar” typical of injection moulded parts. It is easy to see the huge demand for PET that the group has - and Mr. Bakhresa would not be Mr. Bakhresa if he did not have his finger on the pulse of the whole opera- tion. At the last “K” exhibition in Düsseldorf three years ago Mr. Bakhresa visited the Erema stand to learn more about PET recycling. Erema recommended that he use the Vacu- rema line. The discussions were positive and the next day Mr. Bakhresa signed an order for the Vacurema Advanced. The model he ordered, the 1310T, has a PET recycling capacity of about 500kg/h. It was also recommended that he invest in a Sorema plant to wash and shred post-consumer bottles, producing clean flakes ready for the Vacurema. The Sorema equip- ment was also ordered there and then at the “K” exhibition. So it was that at the end of last year, the first bottle- to-bottle recycling plant in East Africa was set up. Here again the company chose state-of-the-art technology and now have a plant producing 10 tonnes of FDA approved granulate per day from post-consumer bottles and in-house scrap. This is not enough to meet the company’s in-house demand of up to 40 tonnes per day but enough to reduce their materials costs. In Tanzania there has long been a system to collect PET bottles, which were shipped to China. Now Mr Bakhresa buys about 30% of them. Despite the huge distances in Tanzania and the at times very variable road conditions, Bakhresa has managed to make the water brand available everywhere in the country. The price for the consumer is affordable at 1.40 US dollars for 12 x 0.5l bottles. At this level Bakhresa believes that he has about a 50 % share of the still water market. Vinod M. Shetye and Dinesh Cranonkar show the products at the recycling plant. In the foreground the light blue washed and sorted flakes from post-consumer bottles and behind is the PET granulate, also tinted light blue. It is hardly surprising that this new plant was soon bursting at the seams and so one year ago more land was reserved in the town for preform production. Since demand had grown even further the old Nisseis were no longer suf- ficient and investment was made in new technologies. The main requirement was that they wanted to move into higher output machines. The company had had good experience with Engel and their the cap moulding machines, so the first new preform system was an Engel machine. Since Engel subsequently pulled out of the preform business Bakhresa, had to turn, only a few months later, to another supplier for their continued expansion programme. The choice fell on the PET-Line 2000 kN system from the Swiss company Netstal. The system includes a 48-cavity tool from MHT and fits nicely into the production area. It is also noted for its high level of after sales serv- ice. Only a few months after its installation it became clear that the next preform machine would be another Netstal. This is now ordered and is on the way. What is not cer- tain is whether, with the rapid expansion in the preform workshop, the Nissei ASBs will actually be moved there. If this happened the workshop would already be full. In total Bakhresa now has capacity for 2.3 million preforms per day - without the new Netstal system which is on the way! In