PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2015

PACKING / PALLETISING 34 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 11/15 www.petpla.net Tour Sponsors: Plastic packaging from concept to commercialisation by Waldemar S hmitke Scott Steele, in the background, Arburg injection moulding machines for prototyp- ing preforms February 19, 2015 - We met: Scott Steele, President Chief Operating Officer, PTI The above is the tag line used by PTI (Plastics Tech- nologies, Inc) to describe the company’s broad ser- vice offerings. These start with design concepts and structural development and progress to rapid prototyp- ing, pre-processing produc- tion, materials testing and engineering right through to workforce training for the plastics and packaging pro- fessionals. The company, established by Thomas E. Brady PhD in 1985, today has two sites, one in Europe (Switzer- land) and one in the USA (Ohio) and employs a total of around 100 people. The company also has a holding in Phoenix Technologies International LLC in Bowling Green Ohio, manufac- turers of recycling PET. Once we have visited Phoenix Technologies, our next visit here in the USA will take us to Plastics Technologies PTI in Holland and to Preform Technologies, LLC in Swanton Ohio. Plastics Technologies At the Group headquarters in Hol- land OH we meet Scott Steele, Presi- dent and Chief Operating Officer of PTI. This division employs 90 people and focuses on helping brand owners commercialise innovative plastic- based packaging solutions. The com- pany is well-known for its expertise in PET applications. The Development and Prototype Center and, alongside it, the Group’s Innovations Park, is located here in Holland, OH. “Here we have a fleet of prototyping machines available,” says Scott Steele, consist- ing of:  4 Sidel stretch blow moulding machines  7 Injection moulding machines from Arburg and Boy  1 Nissei ASB injection stretch blow moulding machine In total we handle around 500 projects per year. A project could be anything from checking the permeabil- ity status of a single unit PET bottle to the development of a completely new type of PET packaging. “Every project starts with an idea,” says Scott Steele. This may involve a completely new package, convert- ing glass, metal and other plastics to PET, the use of specific plastics and additives right through to improving the characteristics of existing pack- ages. At the same time the ideas do not just come from bottling compa- nies or brand owners, but rather from the entire supply chain, such as raw materials suppliers, machine and peripherals manufacturers and, last but not least, from PTI, based on con- tinuous observation of the market. A typical project might run along the following lines. A customer comes along with a new idea for packaging and expresses a desire to launch a new PET package on the market. The reasons for this may be, for example, in order to introduce a new product, to extend the family of bottles by an additional size of bottle or to enhance the intrinsic value of the package by means of weight optimisation, barriers or simply its appearance. We conduct a feasibility study taking into account the given specifications and devise proposals relating to bottle/preform design and processing characteris- tics. At the same time various alterna- tive processes may be deployed or recommended, such as, for example co-injection, over moulding, coating, use of additives, deployment of blends or bio-polymers. The next step would be the actual prototyping where samples with single cavities (preform and bottle) are manufactured. “It is at this stage that the property tests in our lab begin, with the definition of quality standards, followed by the lead-in scenario at the customer’s premises where we pro- vide support and back-up via our per- sonnel and deployment of our know- how. Should the quantities of sample