PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2010

NEWS 8 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 09/10 www.petpla.net Amcor buys Ball Plastics Packaging Americas for US$280 million Amcor has reached agreement to purchase the assets of Ball Plastics Packaging Americas from Ball Corporation, subject to regulatory approval in the USA. Purchase price is US$280 million. The business has five plants in North Amer- ica and annual sales of approximately US$600 million. Net synergy benefits are anticipated to be approximately US$35 million. The cash cost to achieve these synergies is expected to be approximately US$45 million with an additional non- cash writedown of US$30 million. Amcor says that the acquisition will expand its Diversified Products business, which targets the health care/pharma- ceutical, personal care, food and distilled spirits markets. It brings exposure to new growth opportunities including wine bottles, retort packaging for food, and high density polyeth- ylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) containers for various market segments. It will enable Amcor Rigid Plastics to offer a broader range of solutions to customers. The acquisition of Ball Plastics Packaging Americas brings with it expanded capabilities, including developments in multi-layer, retort, and barrier technologies as well as the assets and expertise to manufacture HDPE and PP extrusion blowmoulded containers. Following the acquisition of Ball Plastics Packaging Americas and Alcan Pharma Plastics Packaging, sales in the Diversified Products division are expected to increase to approximately US$425 million. www.amcor.com Two filters for better PET fibres Silons.r.o., Plana nad Luznici, Czech Republic, is the largest manufacturer of PET fibres and PE and PP com- pounds in Central Europe. For over a year it has been operating a new spinning line, equipped with rotary filtra- tion systems from Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH. The new line replaced two older spinning lines, which could not match contemporary standards of energy consumption and production efficiency. It exclusively uses PET bottle flake for the manufacture of fibres. The Gneuss rotary filtration systems remove contamination and produce fibres that are mainly used in the automotive industry. Silon says that the systems provide a highly consistent process, with minimal yarn breaks providing the maximum interval between spin pack filter changes. A melt booster pump is located between the two filters. The first, an SFXmagnus 130, is responsi- ble for coarse filtration (500 μm) of the polymer melt as it comes from the twin-screw extruder. The second, main filter, an RSFgeniu s 175 with a fully automatic self-cleaning, is responsible for the actual, fine filtration. The combination of two filters is necessary as the twin screw extruder cannot develop sufficient back pressure to overcome the flow resist- ance of the required 40μm filtration on the main filter and delivery to the spin beam. The systems operate automati- cally with a rotary disc, providing a continuous exchange of contaminated filter area without influencing the production process. www.gneuss.de