PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2015

MOULD MAKING 22 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 10/15 www.petpla.net Step by step by Waldemar Schmitke March 19, 2015 - We met: Christian Wagner, Managing Director In Atlanta, GA, we met the new Managing Director and member of the Managing Board of MHT Mold & Hotrunner Technology AG (MHT from Germany) Christian Wagner. Since 1996, the date of its foun- dation, MHT AG Germany provides customers worldwide PET moulds, hotrunner parts and onsite service (export rate 80%). The company employs 150 people and has 4 sub- sidiaries in: Luxembourg, China, Brazil and the USA. The American subsidiary, MHT USA, LLC, located in Peachtree City, focusses on the market in North and Central America including Mexico. Established in 2006, this subsidi- ary employs 5 people responsible for Sales, Service, Assembly and Accounting, with annual sales of US$ 5 to 6m. In 2012 the company recorded sales of US$10m, following a major order made up of a number of cold mould halves for 192-cavity pre- form moulds. A new sales manager, Rick Voges, joined the team recently. Here in the USA, the firm is structured to incorporate Assembly, Refurbish- ments, Sales and After Sales and Start-up of 2-stage PET preform moulds. In addition, on-site there are 6 assembly bays with an assembly capacity of 12 complete moulds per year. 50% of the orders are made up of refurbishments and the other 50% of new cold mould halves and com- plete moulds, including hotrunners. The product-specific mould cavities and the ejector mechanism together with the slide bars are accommodated in the cold half of the mould. The hot side of the mould is where the hot runner with the nozzle tips and shut- off needle are to be found. “Our philosophy in doing things this way,” said Christian Wagner, “is to manufacture all the so-called “know- how” parts in Germany at MHT and ship them to the USA.” Know-how parts are, e.g., all mould cavity inserts as well as guide bars with glide parts. Bought-in parts such as mould plates, suspensions, shut-off needles and nozzle tips, as well as the hot runner (engineering by MHT) are also manu- factured in the USA on a case by case basis. In addition, we have devised a supplier structure for ourselves here. But as the US dollar is currently very strong against the Euro, the major- ity of parts come, for reasons of cost actually, from MHT Germany or are ordered directly from one of our Euro- pean suppliers.” The hot runner overhaul work consists, as a rule of an overhaul of the hot runner, hot cleaning of the mould, replacement of parts subject to wear and tear (O-rings, shut-off needles, nozzle tips and nozzle tip F.l.t.r.: Christian Wagner, CEO MHT USA, Waldemar Schmitke, PETplanet, in the assembly hall in front of a cold half of a 144-cavity preform mould product development caps & closures design high cavitation moulds multi-component moulds closure production systems after sales service competent – professional – inspiring Hoechster Strasse 8 | 6850 Dornbirn | Austria | www.z-moulds.com FAKUMA 2015 October 13th-17th meet us at booth A7-7502