PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2013

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 11/13 www.petpla.net Aquafil scores silver Aquafil Engineering GmbH is in the process of cel- ebrating its silver anniversary, marking 25 years since its foundation in 1988. The company, a leading producer of PA6 and PET, has taken the opportunity both to thank customers for their support and to remind the world of its achievements over the past quarter-century. They include the LDR process for PA6 production; two-reactor and LBT polyester production plants for chips spinning and bottle production; and the shaftless disc ring cage reactor for polyester production. www.aquafileng.com Husky world tour reaches Luxembourg September saw Husky Injection Molding Systems host its European Beverage Packaging Conference, a major stop on its year-long World Tour, at its EMEA headquarters in Dudelange, Luxembourg. The event was attended by more than 90 business leaders from around the world and showcased the company’s range of solutions for preform and closure manufacturing. The event included customer meetings, facility tours, networking opportunities, prod- uct demonstrations and presentations from Husky and industry experts. Keynote speaker Jochen Hirdina, Vice President of Plastic Technology for Krones AG, deliv- ered a presentation on economic blowing and filling bloc solutions for water, CSD and sensitive products. Husky presentations covered beverage closure injection equip- ment trends, developments in PET preform manufactur- ing and the case for the purchase of new equipment. The company also put on a preview demonstration of its next- generation HyPET High Performance Package (HPP) 5.0 system, which will be officially launching before the end of the year. The final World Tour events for the year include Specialty Closures Conferences in São Paolo, Brazil, and in Shanghai, China; and a Hot Runner Conference in Milton, Vermont on November 20. www.husky.ca Engel expands its HQ Eighteen months after the southerly expansion of its main base in Schwertberg, Engel Austria has opened a new assembly hall at the northern end of the factory site. This brings to €50 million the total that Engel has invested in the expansion and modernisation of its Austrian plants in Schw- ertberg, St. Valentin and Dietach. The Schwertberg facil- ity has been producing more than 2,000 injection moulding machines annually, which has led to a shortage of machine spaces for client acceptance. Large injection moulding machines have, hitherto, had to be transported to the St. Valentin plant for initial start-up. The new building, which is designed for machines weighing up to 40t, makes sufficient space available on the site and also addresses the trend towards larger injection moulding machines. Engel now pro- duces machines with clamping force of up to 650t in Schwert- berg. The new structure was completed in seven months, entirely by companies based in the region. To mark the open- ing of the new assembly hall, ENGEL organised an open day. www.engelglobal.com Avery Dennison awarded sustainability prize The Label Industry Global Awards 2013, the 10 th edi- tion of the prize ceremony and held as part of Labelexpo Europe in the Event Lounge, Brussels, saw Avery Denni- son presented with the Award for Sustainability. The prize, which was sponsored by Xeikon, was for Avery Dennison’s development of its bottle-to-bottle portfolio of pressure-sen- sitive labels. The portfolio incorporates a ‘switchable’ adhe- sive that adheres to PET surfaces until a bond is broken at the recycler and cleanly releases the label from the PET. The judges described the innovation as offering major sus- tainability benefits for global consumer product end-users. www.averydennison.com Nova Institute refreshes bio-based news On October 1, 2013 the Nova Institute unveiled its refreshed and redesigned “Bio-based News - The Portal for Bio-based Economy and Industrial Biotechnology” (www.bio-based.eu/news). It now offers free access to all its daily news reports as well as the weekly newsletter. News was previously a fee-charging feature but will now be funded by banner advertising. The Bio-based News portal has been running for more than 14 years and has an archive extending to more than 12,000 reports and more than 3,000 companies. www.nova-institute.eu KraussMaffei strengthens injection moulding in Italy Krauss Mafei Group has announced that the injection moulding activities of the Netstal and Krauss Maffei brands in Italy have been brought together. With effect from September 2013, management of KraussMaffei Group Italia s.r.l. will be in the hands of Andrea Bottelli, previously head of Netstal’s Italian subsidiary. Krauss Maffei Italiana s.r.l. will, in future, operate solely as a Centre of Excellence for Reaction Pro- cess Machinery, under the leadership of Gabriele Amodeo. www.kraussmaffei.com