PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2016

COLOURING / ADDITIVE 12 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 01+02/16 www.petpla.net Tour Sponsors: Colour design by Waldemar Schmitke F.r.t.l.: Ms Adriana Rueda, Manager, Mr Len Kulka, Creative Director, and Ms Hsi Chen, Designer, in front of the lab. February 27, 2015 We met: Mr Len Kulka, Creative Director, Ms Adriana Rueda, ColorWorks North America Manager, Ms Hsi Chen ColorWorks North America Designer and Mr Thomas Schneider, representing Amsler Blow Molding Equipment. The plant here in West Chicago is also one of the production operations for masterbatches 80%, and liquid colourants 20%. It is also home to the North American ColorWorks,which is part of a global network of four such sites created to provide packaging and product designers with colour ideas and inspiration and technical guidance. Here we meet Len Kulka, Creative Director, Adriana Rueda, Manager, Hsi Chen, Designer and Thomas Schneider, a visiting repre- sentative of Amsler Equipment Inc. We not only receive a friendly welcome but are bowled over by what we see here. We hadn’t reckoned on finding premises that could keep pace with designer living space in the loft. Brightly-coloured bottle samples stand out impressively against a totally white environment. Separated off by window panes from where we are standing is the lab with machines for colour sam- ples and prototyping. Adriana Rueda’s team consists of eight people here on site who are tasked with noting colour trends in the marketplace so that they can advise customers appropriately. “Design and colour are important elements in pack- aging and play a vital part in ensuring the successful marketing of products in line with market requirements”, says Adriana Rueda, and, she con- tinues,” it is well known what colours can do if they are used with a specific aim in mind, this is something that branded products in particular rely on. This is what we want to achieve”. Although it can support the develop- ment of any plastic product, ColorWorks West Chicago specialises in working with packaging designers. “Here we are in a position where we can generate colour samples and sample packaging for our customers within a very short space of time,” Adriana Rueda explains, “and also demonstrate the colour effect in bottles and closure caps. Our labora- tory facilities allow us to create indi- vidual colour concentrates in the form of masterbatches and to produce preforms and sample bottles.” It’s Friday and on our agenda for today is a visit to Clariant Masterbatches in West Chicago. Clariant Masterbatches is one of seven business units making up Clariant Interna- tional, a company headquartered in Muttenz, Switzerland. In this division there are approximately 3,100 employees work- ing on colour and additive concentrates and performance solutions for plastics in 50 production workshops worldwide.