PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2016

PACKAGING / PALLETISING 34 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 04/16 www.petpla.net “Less is more” packaging – plus an innovative sticky dot! by Heike Fischer KHS’ first in-house exhibition this year took place in March 2016 at the Kleve production location. With the theme “less is more”, the system provider presented its approach to greater economic efficiency and sustainabil- ity for packaging processes to their interna- tional client base and international press. The Head of Packaging Products Division, Norbert Pastoors opened the two-day event. KHS develops its packaging sys- tems in Kleve am Niederrhein, Ger- many. In 1957 Karl Kisters, the “K” in the name of the packaging machinery founded the Karl Kister Maschinenbau GmbH. KHS got on board in 2003 and since 2011, the Karl Kister Maschinen- bau GmbH has been a 100% sub- sidiary of Salzgitter AG. KHS has 300 employees in Kleve. The current production location has an area of 63,000m 2 , which is to be extended by 2,500m 2 this year. The packaging technology turnover (new machines + after sales) was €70 million in 2014. “The great response to our plant engineering shows that we are able to recognise market demands early on and develop systems accordingly,” says Norbert Pastoors, Head of Pack- aging Products Division. “We not only offer bottlers innovative and sustain- able secondary packaging systems; the retail trade also benefits from the customer-friendly presentation of goods made possible by our develop- ments.” The KHS Innopack Kisters product range was presented to visitors during a tour of the factory. The focus was on the flexibility of the packing and pal- letising plants and the conservation of resources. The presentation of an innovative tray shrink packer demon- strated that one system can be used to form packs in several different ways; the TPFO packer can combine con- tainers on trays with or without film, on pads with film or simply pack them in film only. A presentation of the KHS Innopack Kisters DP DisplayPacker illustrated how products can be sold directly off the pallet, meaning that at the point of sale there is no longer any need to move individual packs or loose contain- ers from the shipping pallet to the shelf. The presentation of the Nature MultiPack was the fourth stop during the guided tour through the produc- tion hall. It produces packs of PET bottles or cans joined together by specially developed dots of adhesive only, without the need for any film. This multi award-winning packaging solution (German Design Award for outstanding communication design and sustainable packaging 2016) can be produced with a capacity of 40,000bph in four different combinations (1x2, 1x3, 2x2, 2x3). The bottle’s diameter can be 60–100mm and its height 180- 400mm. Bottle orientation goes with- out saying. The subsidiary NMP Sys- tems sells the Nature MultiPack, the plant technology comes from Kleve. Besides the consumer friendliness as secondary packaging no longer has to be destroyed, there is less domes- tic waste and the bottles are easy to separate from each other, there are also various advantages for produc- ers, according to KHS: less than 2g of adhesive is required in contrast to 15g of shrink film. 67% of energy costs are saved on average. A marketing mes- sage can be printed directly onto the handles and onto the oriented bottles. There is a double benefit for both con- sumers and retail outlets, as waste is considerably reduced. A few days after the in-house exhi- bition, the Nature MultiPack was intro- duced to the market for the first time in collaboration with Danone Waters on the Evian brand starting in France and Belgium. Frederic Maetz, global engineering vice president at Danone Waters who participated directly in the 24-month collaboration comments: “Our leader- ship committed immediately to the partnership and earned first-in-market advantages. Danone Waters R&D, engineering, industrialisation, quality, and marketing people enjoy working closely together with the dedicated people from KHS and NMP Systems.” Prof. Dr Niemeyer, Chairman of the Executive Management Board at KHS, is confident about the new pack- aging solution: “Disruptive innovation is an important part of our strategy at KHS, as well as within the Salzgitter group of companies. Nature Multi- Pack will change the future of pack- aging. With this innovation, we have reinvented ourselves. After introduc- ing the world to shrink packs over 50 years ago, with this packaging we are again proving to be successful with a market-defining hit.” www.khs.com www.evian.com