PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2019

38 TRADE SHOW PREVIEW PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 05/19 www.petpla.net Chinaplas 2019 Locally manufactured moulds PET bottle production equipment specialist Sipa is coming to Chinaplas to demonstrate its solutions for packag- ing that combine high performance with low weight. Sipa produces machinery and moulds for injection moulded PET preforms and for stretch-blow moulded containers, in sizes from the smallest miniatures all the way through to large bottles for water coolers. It also provides design services that help customers create products that stand out from the competition. Headquartered in Italy and with manu- facturing units in several countries, Sipa has operations in China for preform and bottle mould production, refurbishing and conversion. This makes it the only Euro- pean firm providing its Chinese custom- ers with locally designed and produced moulds for preforms and bottles, states Sipa. Its experts in Hangzhou can design moulds, preforms and bottles, and per- form a wide range of laboratory tests. The mould refurbishing and conversion services in China are an important ele- ment of the total PET preform and bottle mould offering. They provide customers with the option of having some compo- nents replaced by new ones in order to improve preform quality (refurbishment), or having the mould converted to produce a completely new (and quite often lighter) design of preform. The advantage of mould conversion over buying a completely new mould lies in the lower capital investment involved. The base (or “shoe”) of the existing mould is retained and reused, accelerating return on investment. Customers can choose which alternative works best for them by having local Sipa experts come and carry out a mould audit. They will assess the state of wear of the various mould components on the spot, and propose different options for conversion and/ or refurbishing, according to the customer’s request. These services complement Sipa’s in- house capability to develop and produce complete brand-new high-performance moulds including, in the case of preform moulds, hot runners – also developed and produced by Sipa. The hot half of each of their moulds requires maintenance only after five million cycles, and it is possible to carry out maintenance on components such as piston, flange O-rings and pin valves without taking the whole mould apart, states the company. Sipa’s service centre in Hangzhou, China, has been operating for 15 years. In that time, its facility has grown rap- idly. The Hangzhou operation can now produce 300 cavities a month for blow moulding and 800 cavities for injection moulding. With local mould plate manu- facturing as well, a 144-cavity cold half can be created in eight weeks. www.sipasolutions.com Chinaplas 2019 will take place on May 21 – 24, 2019 in China Import & Export Fair Com- plex, Pazhou, Guangzhou, PR China, with “Smart Manufacturing”, “Innovative Materi- als”, and “Green & Circular Solutions” being the show focuses. Building on the success achieved in the last edition of Chinapls in Shanghai, Chinaplas 2019 will continue to showcase innovative technologies and solu- tions for different sectors, such as automotive, building materials, E&E, medical, and pack- aging, etc. There will be a wealth of advanced exhibits, of which more than 140 technologies shown are newly announced to the globe or Asia. The advanced exhibits together with a series of concurrent events will demonstrate the theme of “Innovation is Key to the Future”. The packaging industry is playing an increas- ingly critical role across various sectors. Brands are looking for crowd-pulling cus- tomised packaging. Whether packaging can serve as the driving force behind a brand and how it becomes an important means for enter- prises to implement their business strategies are currently hot topics in the industry. Compared to Europe, the US, Japan, and other countries, China is a late starter in the packaging industry, which, however, has grown to a fairly large-scale industry over the past few decades. And thanks to China’s 40 years of reform and opening-up, the income and living standard of people in the country have improved significantly. As a result, the market has a rising demand for technology that helps deal with small and customised orders in a precise, quick and flexible manner, and brands are going through substantial upgrades with unprecedented frequency. The importance of packaging to products is growing exponen- tially. PETplanet picked out some relevant innovations. www.chinaplasonline.com SIPA Hall 4.1 Booth B55