PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2017

BOTTLE MAKING 37 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 06/17 www.petpla.net Tour Sponsors: Go with the flow. South East Asia Road Show PET moulds and cap compression moulding systems by Kay Barton The company started life as a small workshop with three employees. By focusing on the design and manufacture of machine components, the company had grown to around 50 members of staff by 1996. Duy Khanh adopted its current trading name in 2004, the same year it attained ISO 9001-2000 certification. The company develops moulds for a variety of plastic applications and has invested in CNC and EDM equipment on a continuous basis; its manufac- turing facilities are now equipped with over 100 machines, primarily from German, Japanese and Italian manufacturers. Production of moulds and precision components is comple- mented by mechanical engineering and the company now employs more than 100 staff. The largest share, 40% of its output, is precision manufacturing for machine components and cap compression moulding machines. Thirty per cent is devoted to the construction of plastic moulds (of which approximately half is accounted for by preform moulds, cap moulds and blow moulds) and 30% to stamping moulds for sheet metal. The PET moulds area is becoming more and more important, which is a leading reason why Duy Khanh makes a point of using high quality material. “In terms of our product quality, we certainly operate in a slightly higher seg- ment because we buy most of our steel for our mould production from Germany and Japan,” explains Ms Do Ngoc Van Trang, right-hand-person to Mrs Truong Van Tien, the company’s managing director. “It is precisely this aspiration for high quality that is our key proposition.” Duy Khanh defines its target market as companies in the small and medium sized output segments. It offers preform moulds in 16, 24 and 48 cavities and cap compression moulding machine with 12, 16 and 24 cavities. “Our long experience and exper- tise has enabled us to develop a brand new product: The first ever Vietnamese compression moulding machine for seal- ing caps,” says managing director Mrs Truong Van Tien. With an average size of 30mm cap diameter, capacities are 6800 – 8500 units per hour for 16 cavity machines and 10,000 – 13,000 units for 24 cavity units. Depending on the mould, cap diameters of 22 – 65mm and heights of 10 – 40mm can be produced, with a power consumption of 18 – 24 and/or 22 – 28kW. While the construction of PET moulds is, currently, limited to the local market, customers for other areas of Duy Khanh’s manufacturing are located as far afield as north and south America, Japan, and Denmark. “It goes without saying that we want to push ahead and offer our PET and sealing cap moulds on a more interna- tional basis. Right now, however, our cap compression moulding machine is our priority,” Ms Trang explains. “We have sold four of these so far. We presented our new 24 cavity system to the general public for the first time at the Plastics Vietnam exhibition in February 2017.” Altogether, Duy Khanh manufactures approximately 10 – 15 preform moulds, 30 – 60 blow moulds and approximately 150 moulds for other applications per year. Its existing range is set to be joined by 5 – 6 compression mould- ing machines per year. The company’s annual turnover currently about US$2 million. Its current customers include the THP Group (RTD tea, energy drinks, fruit juice, water), Vinamilk and Lothamilk (milk products). “We will continue to grow,” Ms Trang concludes. “Our new factory in the Hi- Tech Park in District 9 is planned to be ready by the end of 2018. We intend that the new factory will include new and bigger CNC machines for manufacturing larger moulds, with length of more than 2m.” www.duykhanh.com Interview with Duy Khanh Engineering Co., Ltd. March 24, 2017 We met: Mrs Truong Van Tien, Director Ms Do Ngoc Van Trang, Director Assistant Mr Nguyen Van Anh, Business Manager In the district of Tan Phu, Ho Chi Minh City, we visited Duy Khanh Engineering, a machinery and mould manufacturing company located between apartment buildings and mom- and-pop stores. This was an unusual experience for us as most of our interviewees are located in classic industrial areas. However, when the company was founded in 1989, the area was mainly wasteland; the current infrastructure has developed around it. Compression moulding machine with (f.l.t.r.) Do Ngoc Van Trang, Kay Barton and Truong Van Tien