PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2021

MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 05/21 www.petpla.net 12 Individual moulds technology from India by Kay Barton April 29, 2021 We met: Shurid Mody, CEO PETform has been manufacturing preform mould sets and PET hotrunners since 1999. The company, which is head- quartered in Mumbai, operates a workshop in Nani Daman, about 180 km towards the north, along India’s west cost. As well as complete mould sets, PETform produces compo- nents and spare parts for well-known Canadian and Euro- pean mould manufacturers. The company also offers pro- totyping services and has production capacity that can be used to supplement customers’ own preform production. We spoke with CEO Shurid Mody about the importance of preci- sion and quality, and slow, but steady growth. PETform Technologies, privately held company, says that the owner’s mission is to provide high quality prod- ucts and services with a competitive price model. The company is led by Shurid Mody, one of the better-known faces of the Indian PET industry. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, and has a history of innovation in the packaging and con- tainers industry. His experience dates back to 1995, when he got into blow moulding because of the family’s bev- erage business. “I was looking after the blow moulding division”, Mr Mody explained. “Later, when we sold the business to Coca-Cola in 1999, we invested the proceeds into mould manufacturing and preform produc- tion. This was during the infancy of PET in India, so there was very good potential.” After a period of intense planning PETform Technologies was launched in 2012, independent of the existing family business and with a focus on the manufacturing of moulds for high-end preform systems and with an international approach. Mr Mody went on: “We ignored the low-end market in India, where customers, due to lack of technical knowledge, were taking decisions based solely on cost per cavity. Our focus was to provide tooling with minimum Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This means using better designs, harder steels, finer tolerances on dimensions and better surface finishes for moulds to produce better preform quality, run faster and serve longer between refurbishing cycles.” When we, PETplanet, recalled our first meetings with Shurid Mody, this is probably the most significant statement linked to this company; one that has been burned into our minds: “We are an Indian company whose markets are primarily outside of India” - that is what Mr Mody confidently said a few times. But what does that mean in terms of business and the compa- ny’s approach? “The differences between us and other Indian manufacturers are, first, that we only offer preform injec- tion moulds built to one standard, for instance”, Mr Mody explained further. “We grind all stack compo- nents to achieve fine tolerances and surface finish resulting in a signifi- cant longer service life, compared with a CNC turning process; and we always harden stack parts to 50-52 HRC. We use ultra-precision jig boring machines and grinders from Switzer- land and Japan to manufacture the mould base plates. Jig borers are 3 to 4 times more accurate than standard CNC machining centres commonly used by other mould manufacturers.” For its raw material, PETform relies exclusively on steels manufactured by Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW) in Germany. “We purchase the material directly through DEW’s subsidiary and not through dealers, so that we are guaranteed the source of the steel”, said Mr Mody. All finish machining and measurement is conducted in a temperature-controlled environment and all components are measured by high quality CMM (coordinate measur- PETform’s CEO Shurid Mody Inspection of neck ring