PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2015

PET TOP TALK 26 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 11/15 www.petpla.net Tour Sponsors: Preform Solutions - Sioux Falls, SD, USA There is no order volume that is so small that it is not worth contemplating – this is the philosophy of the founder and owner of the company, Dennis Christopherson. “Our success lies in the fact that we are able to supply preforms of good quality and at a good price even in response to small enquiries.” This is the concept that Dennis Christopherson used to launch himself as an independent trader more than 15 years ago. His first order was for a 19.5g preform with a 33mm neck. Today there are three Krauss Maffei now Netstal PETForm preform lines operating in his plant with MHT moulds for the higher volumes. Arrangements are already underway to install a fourth line at the plant. As far as the smaller volumes are concerned, he has his moulds produced by Elektroform. Now his range encompasses more than 50 highly diverse types of preform. His secret lies in the well thought out structure of the moulds. Attaching a very wide range of neck geometries to a preform body is only possible by changing one side of the mould. In this way he keeps both mould costs and unit costs under control. In addition he also offers corresponding additives like tints, UV or O 2 protection. As well as purely production activities, he offers his customers comprehensive advice, if necessary also with hints on bottle and preform development. www.preformsolutions.com Dennis Christopherson, Founder Preform Solutions Inc. Alps - Milwaukee, WI, USA What was new at Alps was the further development of the RS linear bottle leak detector. This follows bottles on a customer conveyor for leak testing. Applications for the RS Linear bottle leak detector generally range from 10bpm up to 160bpm for the smallest container sizes. The RST version is new in that this now enables even highly complex bottle geometries to be tested. Previously guide rails were necessary, but now Alps now secures the bottles at the base by means of a vacuum conveyor, thus rendering side rails superfluous. Even bot- tles that cannot actually stand upright when empty, due to their geometry, can be tested in this way. The test sequence has however remained the same. The test photo-eye senses container presence and initiates the leak test sequence. A probe is extended onto the container to form a leak tight seal and perform a pressure decay leak test. The RS linear bottle leak detector’s servo-driven linear actuator moves the probe carriage in a linear motion, for the stroke length of one con- tainer, to follow the container during the test. After the test is complete, the RS linear bottle leak detector’s servo moves the probe head back to home position to wait for the next test. www.alpsleak.com Scott D. Heins, Director of Sales & Marketing Gatronova, Dubai UAE Novatex from Pakistan is offering its PET Resin Bottle Grade and its pre- forms under the name of Gatronova. The company belongs to G&T – Gani & Tayub Group. Polyester Filament Yarn is manufactured within the Group. A proportion of the 235,000mt/a production go into the company’s own preform manufacturing operation. The capacity is available to produce over 2.5 billion preforms per year. Sizes range from 11.25g to 55g, with neck sizes 28mm PCO, 29/25 neck & 30/25 neck, for 330ml to 2250ml water / CSD bottles. Customers also include Coke, Pepsi, Nestle and other major brands. www.gatronova.com Udey Gupta, International Sales & Marketing Manager