PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2012

TRADE SHOW REVIEW 32 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 05/12 www.petpla.net Chinaplas: centre stage for new applications According to statistics and statements from plastics processors, the Chinese plastic industry is slow- ing down. But “slowing down” in China means that the recent record years may be over, but that there is still healthy growth mainly driven by the packaging and automotive industry. With a total of 110,000 visitors the annual Chinaplas exhibition, now the second largest plastic trade show in the world, closed its doors for 2012. While the overall number of visitors was slightly higher than last year in Guangzhou (2011: 94,084 visitors), the number of foreign visitors increased significantly again (28,110, up 25.59%). As happens every year, new Chinese companies appeared on the scene, frequently showing copycat versions of machines from established European companies. Every machine on show, whether from overseas or from local manufacturers is festooned with a “Please NO Photography” sign, which are widely ignored. Photographing machines with the aim of copying them is widespread. Because of this and also the high costs of displaying machines on an annual basis, some overseas exhibitors refrain from exhibiting machines to protect their intellectual property. Caps and closures was one of the hot topics this year. Around the globe, demand for caps and closures is expand- ing by around 5%/a and China is the world’s largest market in terms of volume. Husky presented its Hycap system, which they had already launched at NPE. At the same time Engel and mould maker Plastisud announced the “Green Cap” joint venture and presented also their high speed cap injection moulding system with a capacity of around 130,000caps/h. With these two innovations, both manufac- turers challenge Sacmi, the compression moulding special- ist.The competition has just begun. So it seems that machin- ery manufacturers increasingly use China and the Chinaplas exhibition to showcase new applications and areas. Com- pression moulding specialist Sacmi presented stretch blow moulding machines, preform specialist Husky introduced a high-speed cap production system, directly competing with automotive specialist Engel. There are two main reasons for global operating machinery manufacturers to choose Chinaplas as the world stage for their innovations. In China output matters, i.e. high-output machines are in demand. And Chinese processors are somehow more open to buy a production system from a reputable manufacturer, even if the company is not well-known for this particular application. Double feature “Decentralised production guarantees short delivery times to our customers in Asia” says Gero Willmeroth, Presi- dent Sales and Service of Engel Machinery (Shanghai) Co., and inaugurated the new factory in Shanghai during China- plas. The company started production in China in 2005 and now employs about 210 people in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Beijing. Currently about 100 large-capacity “Engel duo” injection moulding machines with clamping forces from 450-3,200kN are produced annually. Now, with the recent expansion more than 200 machines can be assembled. Although robots are imported from their Austrian plant, the automatisation of the complete production cell is then done locally in China. Today, Engel has a market share of about 20% in China for injection moulding machines of the larger size. Also on Chinaplas, Engel and Plastisud announced their ‘Green Cap’ Joint Venture (see PETplanet issue 4/12, page 10. “The Chinese market is very demanding. Chinese customers request nothing but the best”, says Walter J. Jungwirth, Director New Business Development at Engel Austria. The two companies will offer turnkey solutions for the production of sealing caps for water and soft drinks con- tainers in China. Greencap has set up its base in Shanghai in the premises of Engel to bring a complete and fast service to the Chinese customers. Green Cap unveiled the new con cept: an all-electric Engel e-cap 3440/420 injection moulding machine with a 96-cavity mould made by Plas- tisud that can produce nearly 130,000 sealing caps per hour, reaching a cycle time faster than 2.8s. With cycle times of under 3s and injection speeds of up to 460mm/s, Engel’s all-electric e-cap injection moulding machine is designed to handle high output rates. Green Cap total solutions promise energy consumption of 0.75kWh/kg of granules.The system can be equipped with 32 to 96-cavity moulds as standard along with machine clamping force of 200 to 420t, as a fur- ther option, 500t machines are available. www.engelglobal.com  www.plastisud.com Inauguration ceremony at the new Engel factory in Shanghai