PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2019

BOTTLE MAKING 17 PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 05/19 www.petpla.net BOTTLE MAKING 17 Excellent distribution and con- trol of the barrier layer allows us to accurately dose the barrier and place it where it is needed to mini- mise the use of the barrier mate- rial; which is typically more expen- sive than the skin material. It also allows the customer to light-weight the container knowing the barrier will be accurately distributed where you need it, to achieve the shelf life requirements for the application. We are also seeing a lot of inter- est in co-injection for UV light block- ing applications like in dairy applica- tions (i.e. milk preform- and bottles). In this case we can replace an injec- tion over inject system with a co- injection system and automatically double the cavitation yields since we will be injecting simultaneously. The Klear Can is another area where we are seeing a lot of interest with cus- tomers asking about different size cans to substitute the metal can by a clear plastic container (Klear Can), which is already in stores. PETplanet: Recyclability is a big topic in the plastic and packaging industry. Where do you see future development? Milacron: We see two big areas in the future: One is on material development and the other one is introduction of PCR due to the direc- tives e.g. from the European Union. Biodegradable skin and core materials are currently already being used in our systems. We are studying these materials and working with materials suppliers to test them, on customers’ specific applica- tions. We are also working with the University of Massachusetts Lowell to see how these materi- als perform. We are getting a lot of requests to co-inject a high core content of PCR into what would be normally a monolayer part. We have done this for industrial segment and showcased this at NPE a few years back. Now we are getting the same requests from packaging applications. We believe the European directive is driving a lot of this. By 2030 all plastic packaging should be designed to be recyclable or reusable. By 2040 USA and Canada are proposing complete recyclability and/or recovery of plastic products. As a result we are getting a lot of requests for co-injecting large percentages of low-cost PCR. At the end we can reduce the consumption of virgin resin, by substituting it with recycled material, in the inner layer. This is fully supported with our tech- nology and realised already. As an example, we have moulded a 5 g pail, with 50% scrap material in the inner layer. Similarly we can apply this in packaging. PETplanet: Thank you very much. www.milacron.com Ms Cheryl Sayer, Director of Engineer- ing at Mold-Masters Americas Mr Oliver Lindenberg, President Mold-Masters Americas