PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2016

CHINA EDITOUR 12 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 06/16 www.petpla.net SPONSORS The China Road Show May 20, 2016, Husky Beijing Compression moulding as the biggest competition We met: Bin An, Regional Manager, China North & South (in the middle) Husky, with a 880 preform sys- tems and 100 closure systems is the market leader in China. The organi- sation is managed from Shanghai. This is also where the mould shop is located (see PETplanet Insider 4/2007). The Canadians have divided the country into the south, east and northwest areas, in order to reach customers in the most efficient way possible. Unlike in other countries, the Chinese owners want to create brand value at their own companies as far as possible. This results in their producing the preforms and closures themselves. The converter only plays a subordinate role in this. In the clo- sure sector, compression moulding is the biggest competition. As the one- piece closures have already replaced two-piece closures throughout China, an increasing number of processors are also switching to injection mould- ing technology there. Husky devel- oped wide ranges of beverage closure applications for Hot Fill, Aseptic, CSD and Diary etc. New customers are attracted especially when there are no significant alternative suppliers, and Chinese technology is also growing up very fast. www.husky.co/ZH-CN May 17, 2016, Delvron Aman of many talents We met: Mr Jock C. Lim Jock C. Lim is sitting at the table in the conference room, talking about his extraordinary career. Born 70 years ago in Malaysia and migrated to Singapore at the age of 2, he first gone into the plastics industry 45 years ago and later decided to move his factory to China. There he continue in his Electronics, Plastic Injection and Tool making. The factory was re-located to Tianjin and started preform production facility. He sold his preforms and bottles all over the world, except China. The reason is that it costs very little more to ship a container overseas than it does to move it within China. Hence he shipped containers and preforms to Canada and North America, for the household, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and spirits sectors. What propelled his business at the outset – inexpensive shipping costs – turned sour in recent years. Shipping costs rose relentlessly until it became uneconomic to continue exporting preforms. But Jock would not be Jock if he let this get him down. His solution is to supply bottles direct to the customer in the shape of a one-stage system. Together with two friends from Canada, he is close to being able to launch the machine on the market. It is a hybrid system, in which the hydraulic part exclu- sively supplies the screw. The remaining part is operated by servomotors. 2 to 12 cavities fit into any station of the rotary plate. First, the screw injects. The plate rotates 90 degrees. All pre- forms are conditioned simultaneously. The plate rotates forward a quarter turn and it is blown. In the last stage, the product is ejected. Throughout the process, the neck is contained within grippers, and goes through the entire machine in this way. For the principal components, such as the spindles, Jock uses branded products rather than local alternatives. Nevertheless, the complete system costs only US$110,000 includ- ing a first set of tools and all ancillary units. An ROI in 18 months would there- fore be feasible. For the hydraulic part of the plasticising unit, he already has ideas about making it fully electric. And as if that were not enough, we see in the yard another invention of his, which is destined for the water sector. He was unwilling to divulge any details, but no doubt he will, when the time is right. As a memento of our visit we were presented with two 6 gallon containers for the Editourmobil – naturally, they are made out of PET and water purified in-house by portable solar powered system. We wish Jock every success. www.delvron.com F.l.t.r.: Nicolas Kuhr, PETplanet; Jock C. Lim, owner and founder Delvron; Alexander Büchler