PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2017

MOULD MAKING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 09/17 www.petpla.net 24 z-moulds is building its new headquarters in Dornbirn, Austria More space for creative mould making With its new built headquarters in Dornbirn, Austria, z-moulds is launching a new and innovative creative-centre: clear, cubic structure, light and wood in perfect symbiosis complement each other to form a highly attractive spatial structure. The production hall is centrally arranged in its heart; the building itself is modelled on a Roman atrium, the centre of where the family came together to talk, work and think. In this case, the family consists of four departments, which have been brought together under the umbrella of z-werkzeugbau-gmbh, a privately- owned company since 2005: z-auto- mation, z-microsystems, z-moulds and z-prototyping. PETplanet Insider met Michael Fink, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and spoke to him about the new headquarters and the development of z-moulds. PETplanet: Mr Fink, this is a very impressive building. What would z-moulds like this building to represent? Fink: This building is not just the home of our company, its express- ing also our culture. With its open structure, we wanted our employees to know that we are all under one roof. It doesn’t matter if on the shop floor or in the CEO’s office, all rooms are opened. Our customers can watch their moulds while they are assembled and tested in the technology centre. – This openness endorses the quality of production at z-moulds. PETplanet: This quality is known all over the world. What makes you different from your competitors? Fink: That’s right. Our z-moulds customers are spread out all over the world, from Australia to Tahiti, from Argentina to Russia or South Africa to the US. Of course, we also have many customers in the European market. For example, our beverage moulds feature the patented z-slides system. z-moulds has several smart technologies with patents. One of these is the world-wide proven z-slides technology. This technology is used for all beverage screw caps with moulded tamper evident band. Compared to common lateral slider moulds these sliders are mounted on the inside of the mould, moving only in the machine direction. Thus, the sliders and all necessary guiding ele- ments need less force and prevent- ing stress to the steel by re-directing force. This results in a longer life-time of the mould and the overall mainte- nance time is reduced dramatically. PETplanet: The entire design of the mould consists of individual compo- nents which can be easily replaced and operated. What do you attach impor- tance to, what are the advantages? Fink: This technology is easier to be operated and maintained and that’s the major key to cost saving and at the same time increasing the output. Beside that fact, this modular concept allows a very flexible use and change of the cavities. For example, these moulds can also easily be changed to a z-folded mould for folded and sliced tamper evident bands. In general, the concepts grant a maximum of produc- tivity and cost-effectiveness. PETplanet: Where do you see your future customers? How do you estimate the market for cap mould manufacturing? Fink: Most growth, in my opinion, is still in the water sector, especially on the Asian market. The Chinese market is particularly characterised by using lightweight closures, compared to the more traditional European market. Speciality closures are also a rising field, they allow to diversify, for example elaborate sports closures in developing markets. The CSD market is so far stable for us. PETplanet: Here in Dornbirn on the newly created production area of 7,000m 2 , customers can plan and implement their ideas with state of the art technologies. If it’s a problem to get to your offices in the beautiful country of Austria, one can visit you at Drinktec. Fink: Yes, we will be there on our booth in hall A4/417, but also show- ing multiple moulds with our machin- ery partners. Netstal is running a 32-cavity mould for an 38mm closure to fit their pre-form application, Sumi- tomo Demag is running a 72-cavity mould for a 26mm closure at very fast cycle time and Arburg is running a z-moulds application with the patented z-slides system for a Cap29/25mm water closure. PETplanet: We are very much looking forward to seeing you at the trade fair and thank you very much for your invitation to Dornbirn. www.z-moulds.com Detail of the z-slides mould F.l.t.r.: Heike Fischer and Michael Fink at the new relaxing area for the staff of z-werkzeugbau