PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2015

BOTTLE MAKING 24 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 09/15 www.petpla.net BOTTLE MAKING 24 We met: Mr Kota Aoki, President & CEO, Mr Shigeo Yoshizawa, General Man- ager Sales and Marketing and Mr Takeshi Kochi, Section Manager Sales Coordination Section When the thoughts of an injec- tion moulder turn to single stage systems, the supplier almost certain by coming to mind is Nissei ASB. The Japanese company, which has its head office in Komoro City, Nagano-ken, will be celebrating the 38th anniversary of its foun- dation at the end of the year and has maintained its position over the decades as one of the lead- ing manufacturers of single stage PET lines worldwide. Right from the start, ASB focused on niche products and speciality formats in smaller quantities. The 1978 4-sta- tion single stage principle, better known today as the ASB series, is still a best seller, despite the fact that some new lines of machinery have been added, such as the 1.5 stage PF series, the 2-stage heat- set PM, CM and HS systems in 1995, the ASB-50MB single stage in 2001 and, in 2007, the world’s first all-electric ISBM machine, the ASB-15N/10E. And, looking back, history confirms the company’s role right up to the present day as a lead supplier in many respects, such as in the introduction of multi-layer and PET bottle handles, to name just a couple of its firsts in the industry. On its exhibition stand at Chinaplas, ASB was showcasing its new thick- base mould development in the form of small cosmetics containers moulded on the compact ASB-12M machine. In talks with Mr Kota Aoki, President and CEO, Mr Shigeo Yoshizawa, General Manager Sales and Marketing and Mr Takeshi Kochi, Section Manager Sales Coordination Section, we discussed background factors and concept. “The competition has increased signifi- cantly“, explained Mr Yoshizawa. “Part of our corporate philosophy, however, is always to be one step ahead when it comes to technology. For this reason, we regard making a consistent effort to pinpoint ways of configuring the processing of PET and other plastics intelligently and efficiently in collabora- tion with our customers and their vision as an on-going aspiration and process within our company“. What started with a modest team of 20 employees has grown into a plant covering an area of 150,000m 2 with around 1,450 global employees. The business achieved listing onto the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2013. The majority of shares are held by the founder family itself, which has enabled independence in decision-mak- ing processes. In 1997 the company established a plant in Mumbai, India. Today, this is one of the most important production locations worldwide, along- side the Japanese factory. In Japan, they concentrate on R&D and extremely customer-specific machines and As brilliant as glass… it could only be PET by Kay Barton