PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2015

TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 34 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 04/15 www.petpla.net Chinaplas, Guangzhou, May 20 - 23, 2015 Will Chinaplas break new records? Trade fairs usually act as mood barometers for their respective sectors. Backed by a strengthening US economy, and strong manufacturing sector in particular, this year’s edition of the triennial NPE was the biggest ever. More than 2,000 exhibitors and 60,000 visitors gathered in the new US plastic fair capital Orlando. Husky introduced its new self- cleaning mold technology while KHS Corpoplast showed a direct digital printing process for PET bottles. The mood was from very good to excellent. The next big event is just around the corner: Chinaplas 2015. Here the preconditions are different. For some time the Chinese economy has been slowing down. Factory activ- ity of the world’s second-largest economy slumped again in March, dropping to its lowest pace in 11 months. The slow- down is putting pressure on the government to take action in order to reach its own 7% growth target for this year. And the Chinese manufacturing slowdown ripples through the region. Chinaplas responds in its own way: the exhibition will once again break its past records, with the exhibiting area reaching 240,000 sqm and exhibitors exceeding 3,200. Unlike NPE, Chinaplas takes place every year, alternating between Shanghai and Guangzhou. But what makes China- plas really different from NPE? Every year new Chinese machinery manufacturers appear out of nowhere. They exhibit machines that look amazingly similar to existing European designs. But the most important difference, and a reason why the exhibition still expands, is that Chinaplas can be considered as a truly international fair. Visitors come from all over Asia, the Middle East and the rest of the world to witness the steady progress of Chinese companies. Exhibitors take part in the exhibition not only to find new potential customers, but also to look after existing customers from both inside and outside China. Some leading PET machinery manufacturers will not be present: KHS Corpoplast is attending the Russian Beer exhibition in Sotchi at that time, Sidel is preparing for the Iran Food + Bev Tech, and Husky takes a short rest from its recent world tour. But Chinaplas will again attract more than 100,000 visitors and will break new records. www.chinaplasonline.com Piovan | Hall 4.1 - Booth D41 “Next generation” PET drying technology Piovan Group’s China opera- tion, Piovan Plastics Machinery (Suzhou) Co Ltd, will be display- ing its GenesysL high-efficiency PET drying system. The machine is a global line and is made in its Suzhou plant. A typical resin drying process requires resin to be exposed to hot, dry air for as much as six hours and, consequently, con- sumes a large quantity of energy. Piovan says that GenesysL is designed to operate with market- leading energy consumption. Its features include advanced airflow management, an intel- ligent regeneration process and industrial PLC-based control. The company claims that GensysL is the only auto-adaptive system available on the market and that the 450 systems installed so far represent an overall energy saving of 2 million kWh per year, along with a reduction of 100,000 tonnes of CO 2 annually. Piovan says that GenesysL has the capability to stabilise airflow in the drying hopper, which helps to achieve further significant optimisation of its energy use. The system is designed to recover almost all the energy utilised in regeneration of the dessicant material, which helps to save 50% to 80% savings in energy consumption, compared to traditional or current regenera- tion technologies. The company claims that a system producing PET preforms running at a rate of 1,000kg/h can achieve savings in excess of 220,000 kWh/ yr. Piovan owns patent number EP2186613B1, for a high efficiency system for drying plastic materials. www.piovan.com