PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2013

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 05/13 www.petpla.net Sipa’s XForm preform systems in SE Asia PET preform production companies in South-East Asia are adopting Sipa’s new entry into high-output, high- flexibility production systems, the XForm. Sipa launched the 500t injection moulding system last year, and the first systems are now being installed. A major multinational food and beverage company based in the Philippines, a key converter to a Indonesian drinks supplier, and a pre- form producer for a top green tea supplier in Thailand are among the first companies in South-East Asia - and the world - to order the equipment. In fact, five XForms have either already been installed, are in the process of being commissioned, or will soon be delivered to Sipa customers in the region. The XForm 500 systems ordered all include preform moulds built by Sipa. The moulds have either 96 or 128 cavities. The preforms produced on the equipment will be for carbonated soft drinks, aseptically-filled drinks and hot-filled drinks. The XForm can handle moulds with up to 128 cavities, made by Sipa or any other mould maker. www.sipa.it PET-Verpackungen GmbH Deutschland to acquire hot fill business of LOG GmbH With effect from 2nd January 2014, PET-Verpackungen GmbH Deutschland, headquartered in Grossbreitenbach, Germany, will be acquiring, under the terms of an asset deal, the production of hot fill bottles from Log GmbH in Grabsle- ben, a subsidiary of the LOG Plastic Products Company Ltd. As of April 2, 2013, all sales and marketing activities will be handled exclusively through PET-Verpackungen. “With the production of hot fill bottles we are opening up an interesting niche for ourselves in the fruit juices and foods sector which represents the perfect complement to our existing portfolio“ says Oliver Wiegand, one of the two Directors of PET-Ver- packungen. PET Verpackungen manufacture preforms and bottles and boast many years of experience with a very wide range of barrier technologies. According to Jonathan Schanin (CEO Log-Plastic Products Company Ltd.), Log will be con- centrating more on the production and marketing of plastic packaging for the pharmaceuticals industry in the future. www.logpac.com www.pet-verpackungen.de Clariant installs PET blowmoulding machine in Chicago Clariant, the speciality chemicals company, has installed a new production-scale stretch blow-moulding machine and ancillary services at its ColorWorks Design & Technology Center in West Chicago, Illinois. The company says that the new machinery enables PET packaging developers to evalu- ate its colour and special-effect masterbatches in full-size, three-dimensional bottles instead of flat injection-moulded chips. The machine is typical of those used in actual package manufacturing and means that realistic sample containers with colour and special effects can be produced, on a single site. The company further asserts that colour changes can be made quickly and that it is now possible for customers to complete their work in as little as “a day or two”, and to have production quantities of masterbatches delivered to their con- verters soon afterwards. The blow-moulding machine is cus- tom-fitted with a single-cavity mould to produce a 250-ml oval bottle with one flat side, a shape that Clariant has adopted throughout its global network. The company claims that this kind of container is ideal for simulating the look of a wide range of packaging shapes commonly used in personal care, beauty and cosmetics, as well as beverage applications. The company also has extrusion blow-moulding machines avail- able. www.clariant.com Uhde Inventa-Fischer to build Indian PET plant Uhde Inventa-Fischer has been awarded a contract by Micro Polypet Pvt. Ltd to build a plant for the production of high-quality PET for bottling and packaging applica- tions. The plant will be located in Panipat, India. It will have a production capacity of 216,000t/a and will use terephthalic acid feedstock supplied “over the fence” from an adjacent plant by specialist producer IOCL. The plant will use Uhde Inventa-Fischer’s patented Melt-To-Resin (MTR) technology; it has also been designed for the inte- gration of a second, identical line and can be retrofitted with Uhde Inventa-Fischer’s Flakes-To-Resin (FTR) recy- cling technology. Micro Polypet is a joint venture between two chemical companies: RLG Group and Action Petro- chem Pvt. Ltd. www.uhde-inventa-fischer.com