No.3 2022 www.petpla.net D 51178; ISSN: 1438-9452 21 . 03 . 22 PETplanet is read in more than 140 countries MAGAZ I NE FOR BOT T L E R S AND BOT T L E - MAK E R S IN THE AMER ICAS, AS IA, EUROPE AND AL L AROUND THE PLANET MARKETsurvey Suppliers of preform machinery Page 28 Page 36 Page 11 Page 44 AFTER SALES SURVEY
ClipAside with parallel tethers prevents overbending or breakage, even when misused. Fill, Seal, ClipAside! Added functionality meets easy integration Contact us and arrange your line trials now! www.bericap.com PET 38 PET 29/25 PCO 1881 PET 33 PET 26 PET 26 GME 30.40 In the years to come, tethered closures are going to become the new standard for beverage bottles. Our innovative ClipAside solution is ideal for all major neck finish standards from 26mm to 38mm and for liquid products ranging from carbonated soft drinks to water, juices, teas, syrups, dairy and others. ClipAside does not require major adaptations of the capper or the filling equipment. If necessary at all, small capper feeding or capping head adjustments can be performed by our in-house technical service. ClipAside opens as wide as 180° and is easy to use with no spills or splashes. More convenient for consumers, ClipAside generates less waste too*. *Conforms to the EU Single Use Plastics Directive
No.3 2022 www.petpla.net D 51178; ISSN: 1438-9452 21 . 03 . 22 PETplanet is read in more than 140 countries MAGAZ I NE FOR BOT T L E R S AND BOT T L E - MAK E R S IN THE AMER ICAS, AS IA, EUROPE AND AL L AROUND THE PLANET MARKETsurvey Suppliers of preform machinery Page 28 Page 36 Page 11 Page 44 AFTER SALES SURVEY
imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Vangerowstraße 33 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 info@petpla.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Anthony Withers WikiPETia. info petplanet@petpla.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@petpla.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@petpla.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur | exprim.de Matthias Gaumann READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@petpla.net PRINT Chroma Druck Eine Unternehmung der Limberg-Druck GmbH Danziger Platz 6 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | www.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ subscription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net Dear readers, On Thursday, March 24th we are starting our PETinar on the subject of closures, which is currently the most hotly discussed topic in our PET industry. Presenting the event will be Intravis, Universal Closures and Z Moulds. They will oversee all aspects of closures, from mould making to production to inspection. The tethered cap will be the common thread running through the talks. Based on the experiences of the previous PETinar we will be giving give the auditorium enough space to broaden the topic with questions. We look forward to a lively discussion. Chinaplas 2022 opens its doors from April 25 to 28. It is still difficult for visitors from outside China to visit Asia’s leading trade fair for the plastics industry. Nevertheless, Chinaplas lives up to its claim as a national trade fair. It takes place at a difficult time. Prime Minister Li Keqiang said at the opening of the National People’s Congress, “The Chinese economy is currently facing many more risks and challenges.” The Corona pandemic and the Evergrande Real Estate conglomerate, which is threatened with bankruptcy, are leaving their mark. Nevertheless, the PET industry in China is positive about the future. According to GDXL (see interview on page 34), Chinese consumers are turning to safer packaged foods and therefore also packaged beverages, and as a result of steadily increasing prosperity, more and more people are now able to afford packaged beverages. Despite difficult economic circumstances, the Chinese PET market remains the driving force behind the PET industry. In its last annual report, Krones forecast annual growth rates for bottled beverages of 2.5% by 2023 in China (245.5 billion litres in 2020 plus 18.7 billion litres by 2023). By contrast, Africa and Asia-Pacific are around 2% and the rest of the world lags behind at around 0%. Yours sincerely, Alexander Büchler
AFTER SALES SURVEY 4 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net OUTER PLANET Global market research study on cap and preform production and bottle-fi lling by PETplanet Insider How satisfied are you with your After Sales service? Dear Friends of PETplanet, In the next few weeks you will be receiving an e-mail from us asking you to take part in a survey on the After Sales service provided by your machine suppliers. As a thank you, you will be given a confidential assessment of similar companies in your area. For you as a processor and manufacturer of caps, preforms, bottles and fillers in PET bottles, the results of this detailed customer satisfaction survey of After Sales service can be an additional factor to consider when purchasing new machinery or in improving the servicing of your existing machines. I am really looking forward to receiving your input which will of course be anonymised. Mrs Trotter will be happy to send you the link and access code if you have not received your questionnaire by the end of April (e-mail: emma.trotter@petpla.net). As it has been eight years since our last market research study on this subject, we felt it was high time to take a closer look at the quality of After Sales service. The online questionnaire asks for information on which manufacturers provide the machines used in your plant and how satisfied you are with their After Sales service. This includes the following elements: Speed, reliability, skill; Reasonable price-performance ratio; Availability of mechanical replacement parts; Availability of electrical replacement parts; Emergency hotline; Retrofit / upgrade services; Monitoring and digitalisation of the machines / systems; Employee training / continued training. It would also be fascinating to know what level of After Sales service you receive from the machine manufacturer OEM or from third-parties. We realise this will be a subjective view but having made many on-site visits, we are sure that every company will be able to make a realistic assessment. This can be between 0% (no After Sales service from the machine manufacturer) up to 100% (all-round carefree package provided by the manufacturer). In evaluating the many questionnaires, we will be able to identify clear trends in particular areas and highlight regional, machine manufacturer or size of company differences. The success of this study depends on your cooperation. I look forward to receiving your contributions. Yours, Alexander Büchler Publisher of PETplanet Insider AFTE SALES SURVEY
AFTER SALES SURVEY 5 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net OUTER PLANET AFTER SALES SURVEY 5 Sumitomo Demag Engel Netstal Sacmi Corvaglia Z moulds Husky StackTeck GDXL Intravis Pressco Sacmi IMDVista Otto Systems Sipa Mold Master Otto Hofstetter Electra Form MHT R&D Leverage Petka Mold Agr Ingersoll Rand ABC AF Compressors Kaeser Dalgakiran Shangair Boge Siad LMF Atlas Copco 1Blow KHS Side SMI Kosme Technopet Machineries Luxber Newamstar Krones Flexblow Amsler Sidel STM Pack Fogg Filler Serac PE Labellers Filtec Finpac Heuft European Polymers Conference PET, Polyolefins and Recycled Plastics VIENNA 2022 9-10 MAY 2022 Use code MEDPETPLANET10 to save 10% Evaluate the After Sales service of your machine manufacturer OEMs
PETcontents 6 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 03/2022 Page 36 AFTER SALES SURVEY 4 How satiesfied are you with your After Sales service? - Global market research study by PETplanet Insider EDITOUR 11 MHT prepares for tethered caps and new threads - Interview with MHT Mold & Hotrunner Technology AG 12 ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ - Interview with Bekum Maschinenfabriken GmbH 14 Making the best of the worst of times - Interview with Universal Closures Ltd. MOULD MAKING 18 Challenge accepted - From R&D+I to producing moulds of label-less bottles BOTTLING / FILLING 20 Efficient in a competitive market - How African edible oil producers have taken advantage of growing demand 22 Phoenix from the ashes - After a terrible fire: Serbian Milk producer Imlek relies on an up-to-the-minute block system from KHS PACKAGING 26 Recycling in packaging MARKET SURVEY 28 Suppliers of preform machinery CAPS / CLOSURES 30 “CCM is our calling card on the market” - Interview with Nishant Mouldings about Sacmi’s CCM technology CHINA SPECIAL & TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 32 Outlook clear but overcast 34 PET - the ideal candidate - China’s consumers are increasingly demanding healthy drinks in sustainable packaging 35 New projects in Taiwan - Three questions for Boretech Group 36 Chinaplas 2022 preview 44 Anuga FoodTec 2022 preview 44 Aseptic line and packaging systems BUYER’S GUIDE 48 Get listed! INSIDE TRACK 3 Editorial 6 Contents 8 News 31 Onsite 46 PET bottles for Home + Personal Care 47 Patents 54 Outer Planet Page 22 Page 11 AFTER SALES SURVEY
yellow.agency A FAMILY OWNED SWISS COMPANY. OUR INJEC T ION MOULDS FOR PE T AND PAC F I T THE SWISS MOULD OF PREC ISION CRAF TSMANSHIP. OT TO-HOFSTE T TER . SWISS T OTA LLY SW I S S.
PETnews 8 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net PETINAR Evergreen to install AI-enabled sorting robotics in third recycling, rPET manufacturing plant Evergreen, one of North America’s three largest producers of food grade rPET, has announced that it will be installing artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled bottle sorting robotics at its Albany, New York plastics recycling and rPET manufacturing facility. When the installation is completed in mid 2022, Evergreen will have deployed 15 high-speed, highly accurate robotic lines at its three of its United States locations. Supplying the robotics sorting lines to Albany is AMP Robotics Corp., a pioneer in AI robotics and infrastructure for the waste industry. AMP installed the AI-enabled robotic sorting lines in Evergreen Clyde in April 2021 and Evergreen Riverside in August 2021. Evergreen President and CEO Omar Abuaita says replacing previously manual sorting processes with high-tech robotics is part of a strategic vision to transform not just his company, but the overall plastics recycling industry. “With demand for recycled PET at the highest levels in history, we simply can’t rely on outdated ways of doing business. Evergreen is playing for keeps. Automating our sorting lines allows us to support ever larger PET recycling streams, provide the millions of pounds of food grade rPET our customers have committed to purchasing, and achieve a safer, more efficient work environments for our team.” Last month Abuaita revealed that Evergreen, a portfolio company of private equity firm the Sterling Group, has invested more than $ 200 million in modernisation, capacity expansion, and acquisitions over the last 12 month. The AMP robotics are part of that investment. Evergreen currently recycles more than 11.6 billion postconsumer PET bottles a year, up from 2 billion in 2021. General Manager Greg Johnson says the AI-enabled sorting lines are an absolute necessity to increase both the speed and accuracy of sorting the monumental volume of bottles Evergreen processes. www.evergreentogether.com Carbios to build in France a manufacturing plant for fully bio-recycled PET in partnership with Indorama Ventures After having successfully started-up its demonstration plant in Clermont-Ferrand, Carbios is now moving one step further towards the industrialisation and commercialisation by partnering with Indorama Ventures. The goal is to build and operate in France the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET bio-recycling plant, with a processing capacity estimated at ca. 50,000 t of post-consumer PET waste per year, equivalent to 2 billion PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays. After the positive results of Indorama Ventures’ initial analysis on the technical soundness of Carbios’ technology over the past several months, both parties agreed to complete a due diligence process. A feasibility study will be conducted for the industrialisation of Carbios’ technology on Indorama Ventures’ French production site. Subject to the successful completion of these technical and economical evaluations, Indorama Ventures would co-invest in the project. With its world-first enzyme-based biological process, Carbios’ technology, named C-Zyme, converts PET into its core monomers, which can then be used to manufacture 100% recycled and infinitely recyclable PET. This manufacturing plant is claimed to combine Carbios’ science and technology with Indorama Ventures’ world-class manufacturing capabilities. This collaboration will meet the growing needs of both demanding consumers and large consumer goods companies including Carbios’ partners and shareholders (L’Oréal, Michelin, L’Occitane, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo, Suntory Beverage & Food Europe) for more sustainable packaging. www.carbios.com www.indoramaventures.com On 24 March 2022 at 2 p.m. PETplanet Insider will host another PETinar on the topic of Tethered Caps! Learn from Sascha Baumanns, Director of Sales at Intravis about the possibilities of inspecting tethered caps. Mark Smith, Senior Vice President at Universal Closure and Michael Fink, CEO of z-Moulds will report on their joint projects and present their moulding concepts and systems. All three companies are well established in the market and will be available to answer your questions! PETplanet’s Editor-at-large Ruari McCallion will guide through the PETinar. Register now: https://petpla.net/category/petinars
9 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net Klӧckner Pentaplast: rPET/PET capacity expansion Klöckner Pentaplast, a global leader in recycled content products and high-barrier protective packaging, has announced its intention to expand its post-consumer recycled content (PCR) PET capacity in North America with an investment to further grow its sustainable innovation offering in consumer health, pharmaceutical, and food packaging markets. The expansion will add an extrusion line and two thermoformers delivering a total of 15,000 metric tonnes of new rPET/PET capacity. The extrusion line will support the production of sustainable product lines such as kpNext recyclable pharmaceutical blister films, and Smartcycle recyclable label and consumer packaging films. The thermoformers will produce kp Elite mono-material protein trays which are made using up to 100% rPET and are claimed to be easily recycled. The location for multimillion-dollar expansion is currently under review and will sit next to one of its six North American plants that is best situated to serve its customer base. It is targeted to be fully operational in Q1 2024. www.kpfi lms.com Alpla Group continues international growth trajectory The Alpla Group, the global packaging solutions and recycling specialist, increased its turnover in the 2021 financial year by 8.4 per cent to four billion euros. The number of employees worldwide increased to 22,100. In addition to investments in recycling and in the development of bio-based and biodegradable plastics, the company expanded through acquisitions and participations. Since 2021, the Alpla Group has invested an average of 50 million euros annually in the expansion of recycling activities. By 2025, the recycling loops are to be closed in as many regions as possible. “Our customers’ demand for high-quality recycled materials is also growing outside Europe. In the long term, we want to cover between 70 and 80 per cent of demand with our own production,” says CEO Philipp Lehner. Outlook 2022 Growth of three to five per cent is the target for the 2022 financial year. “Numerous projects and acquisitions in the USA, Mexico, Asia-Pacific region and Western Europe enable us to strengthen existing and enter new product and market segments,” Lehner emphasises. With the new Asia-Pacific (APAC) region coming on stream in early 2022, Alpla is also expanding the reach of its industry-leading mould technology in the growing Asian market and driving the expansion of the circular economy in the region. www.alpla.com Coca-Cola pledges to increase share of sales in refillable bottles With an eye to curbing plastic waste, The Coca-Cola Co. announced the goal to increase the share of its beverages delivered in returnable/refillable containers. The company committed to selling 25% of beverages in refillables by 2030, up from a current 16%. The pledge was in response to a pending shareholder proposal filed by As You Sow and Green Century Capital Management, asking the company to set stronger refillables goals. A recent analysis by Oceana indicated considerable potential to reduce ocean plastic by increasing refill market share. It concluded that boosting the share of refillable bottles by 10% in all coastal countries in place of single-use PET bottles could reduce plastic bottle marine plastic pollution by 22%. Nearly half of the company’s packaging consists of singleuse PET plastic bottles, generating 3 million tons of plastic packaging annually, the equivalent of producing 200,000 bottles/minute. The company states that single-use bottles are far more likely to be improperly disposed of and become ocean pollution, harming marine life. Refillables are claimed to provide opportunities for faster, larger cuts in single-use plastic, since they do not need to be remanufactured each time they are used. Refillables have demonstrated their ability to substantially cut plastic waste while providing substantial profits with a 90% collection rate, says Coca-Cola. The bottles can be reused from 20 to 40 times. By comparison, less than 30% of single-use PET beverage containers are recycled in the U.S. Refillables account for 50% or more of company sales in more than 20 global markets, and 25% or more in another 40 markets, yet Coke had not committed until now to strategically increase refillables targets and timelines except in one country - Brazil. As You Sow filed the shareholder proposal in conjunction with Green Century Capital Management as co-lead filers. After additional analysis of the details of the company’s goal, the filers will determine whether to withdraw the proposal. www.coca-colacompany.com www.asyousow.org
ENERGY COSTS reduced by 15 %? UNLIMITED life time ! MAINTENANCE COSTS reduced by 50 %? Drinktec Munich Hall 5 / Stand 520 Messe München, 12-16 Sep. 2022 www.afcompressors.com sales@afcompressors.com YES! AF Compressors can provide sustainable and long life 8 bar & 10 baroil free air compressors! Can AF Compressors also supply 8 bar & 10 bar, oil free air compressors? AF COMPRESSORS
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 11 Tour Sponsors: MHT prepares for tethered caps and new threads We met: Dipl. Ing Christian Wagner, CEO at MHT Hochheim, Germany In the EU, tethered caps will be mandatory from 2024 and worldwide entirely thread geometries like 26/22 are expanding their market share. While the remainder of the preform can retain its original size, in many moulds the neck rings will need to be replaced with new geometries. As an independent mould producer, MHT has responded to the increased demand by building a fully automated production line for neck rings. PETplanet met with Christian Wagner, CEO at MHT. PETplanet: Everybody is talking about the introduction of tethered caps and we also see new threads for CSD and water coming up. How does that affect a highly specialised mould makers like MHT? Christian Wagner: At the moment there are different kinds of tethered caps entering the market but there is no standardised solution yet. As soon as the big players have figured out which caps they are heading for, there will be a huge demand for the reworking of existing moulds. The same is true for new threads which offer very interesting possibilities for saving material. If you look at a 26/22 for example with 2.4 grams compared to a PCO 1881 with 3.81 grams. PETplanet: Why is tethered caps such an issue? It’s only the caps, isn’t it? Christian Wagner: Many of our customers are still not aware that in most cases tethered caps will involve new neck geometries for the preform. There simply has to be some space for the tethering. As a reliable partner, we are trying to get ahead of the wave, talk about challenges and opportunities now – and prepare our production facilities for the rising demand. PETplanet: What does that mean in detail? Christian Wagner: We invested a lot in a fully automated manufacturing Dipl. Ing. Christian Wagner, CEO, talks to PETplanet Insider. The fully automated neck ring process inter-connects several machines by multi-axis robots. On tour with Editourmobil outside the gates of MHT in Hochheim, Germany. line for neck rings. This is the part that forms the contour of the thread and must be exchanged when preforms get a new geometry. The crucial thing is that we combined several operational phases and only need to clamp the neck rings once for everything that follows. The component can be machined from both sides and the machines used for high-speed milling, grinding, polishing and eroding are inter-connected by means of multi-axis robots. The neck rings pass through a cleansing unit that removes dust created before being measured at another station. The machine can run on its own for the weekend by means of an efficient magazine support system. The system has been designed in such a way that throughput can be increased by using additional machines. PETplanet: You mentioned opportunities that might open up regarding the thread exchange. Christian Wagner: Well, if you need to rework the mould anyway you can just as well look into lightweighting and material saving. That is why we are talking to our customers two years in advance about tethered caps. It often takes some time to check on patent situations and find the perfect solution for an application. PETplanet: MHT builds moulds for almost all PET systems on the market. Do you also exchange neck rings on moulds of different makes? Christian Wagner: Yes, that it is no problem at all. We measure the existing neck rings very precisely and manufacture the new ones accordingly – with the tethered cap geometry and maybe a lightweight thread, of course. PETplanet: Thank you so much Mr Wagner. www.mht-ag.de
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 12 Tour Sponsors: Extrusion blow moulding machines from the German capital - Interview with Bekum Maschinenfabriken GmbH ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’by Kay Barton January 27, 2022 We met: Mr Christian Richard, Sales Administration & Corporate Communications Manager the Berlin Wall looming nearby, we had to come up with some way to expand. The solution was in Traismauer, Austria, where industrial areas and qualified employees for the further development and production of machine parts were available. With the growing product range, capacities in Traismauer increased, where in the course of time complete large blow moulding machines of our Large Blow Moulder series “BA” started. Traismauer’s full responsibility for the development and production of the BA series was finally taken over in 1994. In addition, at Traismauer, there is a state-of-the-art mechanical inhouse and job-order manufacturing facility, which supplies a comprehensive range of flexible and precision manufacturing activities. After With its machinery and systems, Bekum serves both the food and beverage industry and various nonfood sectors, such as the automotive and pharmaceutical industries. The manufacturer has recorded growth of over 10% annually in the years 2019 to 2022 and has managed to take advantage of supply shortages in other engineering firms caused by the pandemic and achieve record sales. Currently, its principal markets are in the packaging sector with handleware bottles for food and beverage. Interview partner Christian Richard, Sales Administration & Corporate Communications Manager at Bekum, has been with the company for more than 27 years and is almost part of the furniture. As an introduction, he told us the history of the company sites: “Back in 1968, with business booming and Bekum Maschinenfabriken GmbH has its headquarters on an industrial estate in the south of Berlin’s Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. It is an original Berlin company and after more than 60 years of its existence, the world of extrusion blow moulding has long been unimaginable without it. Founded in 1959 by Gottfried Mehnert, the company remains family-run and has trodden a continually successful path, delivering various important inventions and patents. When it all started, the still new company became a talking point with its development of the first ring neck calibration. This was followed in 1963 by the first double-station blow moulding machine in the world and then, 13 years later, the first blow moulding machine for six-layer coextrusion. Full order books in the Berlin Wall era and the resulting expansion restrictions in the city led to the establishment of the Traismauer site in Austria in 1968. In 1979, another site was added in Williamston, Michigan, USA, to serve the North American market. But Berlin always remained the nerve centre and beating heart of Bekum, uniting the departments for Sales, Customer Service, Design and Development. The upcoming generation of the entrepreneurial family is ready in the starting blocks to secure the company in the long term. A reason for us to drop into the company’s headquarters. Christian Richard, Sales Administration & Corporate Communications Manager, Bekum
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 13 will make PET bottles with handleware,” continues Mr Richard. “New applications in the field of PET carry handle packaging are currently being developed. We are seeing even greater growth here.” Besides food and beverage, nonfood sectors are also being kept in view, where customers do not want to do without the brilliant appearance of PET. The current best-selling machines are the models Eblow/ Hyblow 607D 2x3-fold and 407D 2x2-fold. “PET handleware bottles need excellent clamp performance, which we deliver with the C-frame. The design of the C-frame, which utilises mould platens that move along precise, low-friction linear guides, enables completely symmetrical clamp force distribution along the entire mould area, while maintaining high parallelism of the mould platens. The full clamp force is available independent of the mould thickness without adjustment. A precise clamp force distribution during the clamping process results in ideal article weld formation.” Besides the initial successful business years mentioned above, the pandemic years have also given the company a boost in terms of service development. “We have expanded everything relating to digitalisation in day-to-day business as regards customer interaction and the remote maintenance of machines.” In other ways too, they are doing a great deal and equipping themselves further for the future, for example in the processing of rPET, where successes have been reported in various test runs. “This is one of the many topics we’re tackling. Just last year, we expanded our site in Williamston with a 3,700 m2 production hall so we can keep up with the increased demand for machines. At this year’s K trade fair, we will be presenting our new equipment and new technologies to the public.” www.bekum.com significant investments, since 2015, the complete Bekum production capability for the European market has been located there.” With the expansion into the American market in Williamston in 1979, there was finally synergy between German technology and American entrepreneurial spirit, which led to an independent product range. “It was more than just a simple adaption of a German machine for the market there,” explained Mr Richard. “The Americans successfully established their own machine line. The sense of responsibility of a family business is always present in the US: for example, Bekum America depends strongly on their own apprenticeship program. Today around half of the manufacturing employees come from this program.” The group has around 350 employees in total; 50 in Berlin, 150 in Traismauer and 150 in Williamston. “Our 60-year company philosophy sets us apart, as well as the specialist staff that implement it. It enables us to get close to our customers both in person and digitally. Alongside our own sites, we also have more than 30 local sales offices and onsite service centres with appropriate spare parts stores to accelerate processing and service. Careful expansion of the PET business Besides Bekum’s machines and equipment for processing various thermoplastics, the PET sector is also being carefully expanded – its current contribution to overall turnover is still under 10%. In the past few years, there have been various projects in this field, such as the successful production of handleware bottles for juice bottler POM Wonderful in 2005 using Eastman’s copolyester EB062, and a bottle for Coca-Cola in 2007, which helped the EB062 achieve its breakthrough. Christian Richard explained: “Packaging trends, which we support with our equipment, often place global food and drinks manufacturers in the premium sector, and the same is true for PET. One example is fresh juices from the chiller, where marketing at POS is also guided by the premium packaging.” New applications of PET carry handle packaging The beating heart of a finished PET bottle like this, the “C-frame closing” unit, was reported as a patent by Bekum in 2010 for electric and hydraulic blow moulding machines. It was to simplify the processing of copolyester and PET and can be found in the models of the Eblow and Hyblow ranges. In 2019, the new System Concept 808 was presented, which was to combine improved plastification while simultaneously saving energy, an interactive user interface and the option to manufacture multi-layer packaging, alongside the use of the C-frame and a revised design feature including a quick-change system for moulds. “This year, in 2022, over 40 extrusion blow moulding machines
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 14 Tour Sponsors: Interview with Universal Closures Ltd. Making the best of the worst of times by Ruari McCallion February 3, 2022 We met: Mr Mark Smith, Senior Vice-President Universal Closures Ltd seized the opportunity presented by the reduced level of primary activity during the Covid-19 pandemic to bring forward a number of design innovations – but the impossibility of face-to-face interaction was an inconvenience. Universal Closures, which is based in Tewkesbury, near Gloucester in England’s West Country, is quite a small company but it casts a giant shadow. It specialises in the design and development of closure systems, mostly in HDPE, for plastic bottles ranging in size from 100ml to 5 l. Its client list includes Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, P&G and Nestle. It has over 30 licensees across the world using its designs and works closely with Z-Moulds in Austria, in developing the tooling for the caps involved in complete closure systems. Its main focus has been beverages; over 80% of its revenues have, traditionally, come from that market. But that is likely to change, mainly thanks to its most recent partner, Westfall Technik in the USA. Its primary market is homecare and personal care, which is becoming a commercially attractive area for the company – of which more later. Mark Smith, Senior Vice-President of Universal Closures, made the trip from Tewkesbury to meet PETplanet Insider’s Editor-at-Large, Ruari McCallion, in Salisbury, in the south of England – the first time we have sat down face-to-face since June 2020. It has been an eventful 20 months since then and we started by discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the business. It was good to hear that the pandemic and associated shutdowns, border closures and restrictions have not had an immediate effect on Universal Closures. EU Directives, tethered caps and new GME 30/40 finish and closure standards “We have a business model that has a strong and regular income from royalties,” he said. There have been fluctuations but there has not been any discernible trend, either commercially, by sector or geographically. Sales have remained pretty constant. The impact is more likely to be felt further down the road, because the normal five-year cycle of machinery renewal has been interrupted. A number of changes are arriving in the market, including EU Directives on tethered caps, single-use plastics and incorporation of recycled material, as well as recyclability. The standard for caps and closures is also changing. The 1881 closure systems, which have become common for over 15 years, are being superseded by the new GME 30/40 or 30/41 standard. “Coca-Cola specifically has been working with several of their key partners – UCL being one of them – to develop a replacement finish for 1881, which is known as GME 30/40. They wanted a lighter weight neck finish but also needed to ensure that they didn’t score an own-goal and not have enough space to accommodate the tethered cap that is coming,” Mark explained. The GME 30/40 PET finish is the first international standard that Mark Smith, Senior Vice-President of Universal Closures Ltd, came to visit PETplanet Insider’s Editor-at-Large, Ruari McCallion (photo on the left), at the Salisbury, England offices. Mark noticed an interesting article in PETplanet Insider about Z-Moulds, a long-time partner of Universal Closures.
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 15
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 16 Tour Sponsors: has been specifically developed for attached closures. The thread diameter of the neck is just 26mm, down from 28mm of the PC 1881. This enables the tethered cap strength requirements and performance standards to be met while, at the same time, reducing the weight of the finish – often the single heaviest element in a PET bottle. It’s a step forward but its emergence, at the same time as the two years of the Covid pandemic, has led to a downturn in investment in new equipment. “We hit the beginning of the pandemic with the 1.9 g CSD closure. Under normal circumstances, that would have been quite an easy sell,” he continued. “If you’ve had the 2.1 g for the previous five years then, in the normal course of refurbishment, you would go for the lighter version – it would save a lot of money in raw materials. But the pandemic has led people to delay investing in new equipment and, probably, now to look to the GME 30/40.” Driving development However, the hiatus in investment has not impacted on UCL’s development activity; rather, the opposite. Enquiries have been coming in about tethering systems and the company itself has been looking to develop markets complementary to its historic heartland of CSD and waters. “Westfall Technik, our newest partner, is based in the USA. Our MD, Rod Druitt, is spending a lot of time over there right now,” Mark said. “They have an interest in broader areas of the market, including healthcare, personal care and homecare, as well as beverages. Our relationship with them means that we have had a lot more enquiries from sectors outside beverages than has been the case, historically. As a result, in terms of design activity, developing new closures and prototyping them we have been as busy as ever.” Opening new markets The fact that international travel has largely been out of the question means that UCL has hunkered down, take those enquiries and developed a whole new market. A lot of enquiries have enabled it to bring its beverage expertise to bear on liquids with different viscosities, developing resolutions through innovative technology, eliminating components and materials from caps and closures. “We were the first to design an effective cap that didn’t need a liner to create a seal on extrusion blow moulded bottles,” he continued. “Eliminating materials means reducing cost, cutting energy consumption, reducing waste and improving recyclability.” A lot of the package materials being used in homecare, healthcare and personal care are different – and processed differently – from CSD’s PET. Drink bottles are likely to be used fairly quickly; a large bottle of cleaning material is likely to be around for longer and to be treated more roughly, so the typical material is more likely to be HDPE. A single-stage extrusion blow-mould process, for example, will typically use a guillotine to cut the bottles away from the mould. This leads to a finish that is not even and smooth, like PET, but may feature a lot of flashing – dairy is another area where this is the case. UCL has designed a single-piece cap that incorporates a flexible blade within it, that can cope with the variations in neck finish and still maintain a full seal. Universal Closures’ Blade cap is designed to eliminate liners in closures for extrusion blow-moulded neck finishes. Sealing the deal: a new solution to eliminate liners “We created a seal, called a wedge seal, that looks a little bit like a liner. Its blades lie diagonally and, when they compress, they don’t form a complete, uniform line; they follow what a liner would do in the critical areas,” he explained. “If you think of a conventional liner, it’s a disc and, in fact, the bit in the middle is wasted. What our design does is to mimic the behaviour of a liner, in a blade. We designed that and worked closely with Z-Moulds to develop the tooling to allow the shape to be created and we had to do a lot of trials on the angle and with the ultimate client – a major producer of household goods – to prove the concept and demonstrate that it works, at scale.” Mark and UCL as a company believe that the new blade-seal cap has a great deal of potential, across the world and across several markets. UC’s ‘Eagle’ closure for the new GME 30.40 closure system standard for CSD
EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 17 BEYOND THE HORIZON PROCESS SOLUTIONS FOR POLYMER RECYCLING AND SOLID STATE POLYMER UPGRADING Polymetrix, a Sanlian Buhler Company, provides process technology including EPCM services for the polymer recycling and manufacturing industry. Leading supplier of rPET systems and integrated rPET plants for single line capacities up to 70’000 tons per year. www.polymetrix.com www.slhpcn.com “There are lots of these HDPE bottles with PE or PP closures. Our’s is a solution that will cost less, it uses the same HDPE resin and their environmental message gets stronger,” said Mark. Dairy is an obvious example. It has very tight margins, is dominated by HDPE as a material and uses tonnes of liner material. Being able to get rid of the liners – and the challenges associated with collection and recycling – could be a major step forward. Personal relationships: key to satisfaction One thing that UCL has always regarded as very important is personal relationships, for sales, trials, service and support, and the pandemic has got in the way. Quarantine periods before and after site visits – if they are even allowed – mean that a trial that should take just a few days can extend to five weeks or so. Rod Druitt gave up his Christmas to help smooth the installation process at a customer in Thailand. He took responsibility, rather than expect an employee to shut themselves away for such a long time. And it goes further. “You need to have a line trial to prove a product is fit for purpose. We have our own product laboratory at UCL and we can undertake all the validation – we are fully Pepsi accredited and there’s nothing we can’t do to prove that the closure is functional,” Mark explained. “But key projects tend to get over the line when you are face to face and that is a key element that has been missing. It’s being able to look someone in the eyes and being able to read subtleties, better than you can in a Zoom or Teams call. We can be working on something for several months, we can develop and demonstrate all the concepts, then you do the pilot and being there is crucial. It’s being able to spot that there’s a query that hasn’t been raised, so you haven’t answered it. You can see someone look at someone else, press to understand the issue and answer their concerns immediately. We simply cannot do that as well virtually.” Like many of us, UCL is willing and eager to get back to normal, to working closely with clients all over the world. As restrictions are lifted in territory after territory, its clients will find Universal Closures coming to see them with a wider range of ideas and solutions, with better performance and more cost saving than ever before. It’s a company full of ideas and it hasn’t wasted time during lockdowns. www.universalclosures.com UC 2925 HMC (hinge-moulded closures) for still beverages
MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 18 From R&D+I to producing moulds of label-less bottles Challenge accepted While PET label-less bottles are gaining shelf space and other commercialisation channels, the legal information printed on the container could be less than before. However, the multitude of technical and design resources involved in a label-free bottle make it complex for the mould maker to define in a technical document. It is no longer enough to use a drawing with the code of an etching pattern is shown, solely. Precisely defining textures, glosses, reliefs and other forms of communication involved in a label-less container becomes a necessity for global R&D+I teams. Branding agencies are having more influence than ever on PET bottle design teams. Inevitably, this will require changes in the way designers communicate with engineers at blow mould suppliers. The multiplicity of technical and design resources used in a label-less bottle adds layers of complexity to the way that information is transmitted. The 3D model of a PET bottle contains detailed shape information but a challenge raised by label-less bottles is merging or integrating graphic design resources with industrial design. Engraving texts within a blow mould is not new. Small diameter cutting tools, which rotate at high RPM, have been used until now but the advent of laser technology in mould manufacturing has changed results and greatly expanded possibilities. Is it possible to create exactly the same text if the mould is made using CNC milling machining equipment instead of laser equipment? The answer is: No. A similar result in the blown bottle compared with the laser mould version can, in some cases, change what the branding agency sought to communicate to the target consumer. The beam of light from the laser creates pure shapes on the metal, just like ink on a label, so the logos and fonts are transmitted to the mould as designed – but what happens when a toolmaker changes manufacturing technology from laser to milling machine? Could the shine on the production bottle’s skin not be exactly what was initially achieved in the R&D+I laboratory? And could this ultimately lead to on-shelf performance being affected? Something similar happens with the textures and many other technical resources applied to develop this new high-tech packaging generation. The new design paradigm is associated with the need to communicate more than a shape by the blow mould. Deformations of even a minimal tool radius distort bottle details and, ultimately, the transmission of information. The brand logo, texts, textures, polishing – and more – must be accurate, in order to reproduce every effect that initially was approved in the pilot mould and avoid unexpected commercial results. The success of a NoLabel bottle is not only the industrial design itself, says Juan Manuel Colmenares, Senior Engineer at Moldintec’s TechCenter Buenos Aires. The mould plays a decisive role in creating the effects that make designs legible and attractive, in practice. It brings the virtual into the real world. The use of laser has changed the definition of what we manufacture, as well as the limits of what is possible. The historic corner radius distortion is no longer an issue but getting PET to copy the mould faithfully requires several other factors to be resolved, first. Engineering of the venting channels is an example. Its calculation, location and how they are manufactured will radically influence bottle results. Drilling a hole in a NoLabel bottle is not the same as making a continuous venting frame with the laser, or even combining the two techniques. Something similar happens with textures and fonts. Etching patterns are no longer two-dimensional image applications on a mould surface with a fixed depth. It is now possible to apply specific depths to each part of a pattern and create amazing 3D effects. To make the stunning effects of a NoLabel container, a texture needs a pattern (an image created by designers) but also definitions of density, height or depth, levels of application, roughness, and numerous other fundamental parameters. Companies’ R&D+I teams face the challenge of converting graphic design information into an engineering document. With labels, it is about transmitting the font, the printing colour coding through standards such as Pantone, the technology of printers to be used, the substrate, along with other parameters, to create a label is the same, globally. During the R&D+I process of a novel label-less bottle, several design parameters exceed the 2D drawing and 3D model limits. The techniques and technologies used in the pilot mould must be replicated, in order to manufacture those that will operate at commercial scale in industrial production. This means that they Blow mould shells for label-less mineral water bottles from Danone Villavicencio
MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 19 MOULD MAKING 19 must be included in the technical data package, in order to obtain the effects created through hundreds of hours of design and financial investment. NoLabel is novel in multiple ways; a constantlychanging range of challenges has to be faced while moving forward in expanding the scope of its application, Juan Manuel Colmenares concludes. “The new bottle definitions goes far beyond dimensions and tolerances. Indicating which parts of the design require lasers is something that we include in bottle drawings that we generate for our clients. We also help them create the quality control procedures to follow with these new kinds of tools, since they will include legal information that is to be present in the bottle’s skin, a fusion between ancient label printing with bottle approval protocols”, he continues. Engineer Juan Manuel Colmenares has been part of the Moldintec NoLabel project research team since its launch in 2017. He has been involved in multiple no-label projects, including the 2022 WorldStar award winner. www.moldintec.com E N D L E S S I N N O V A T I O N S I N C E 1 9 1 9 Laser machining: Sharp edges for an exact logo definition Sharp edges and detailed small fonts, realised via laser machining High Speed Milling: Logo distortion due to tool radius 0.5mm
BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 20 How African edible oil producers have taken advantage of growing demand Efficient in a competitive market Based on statistics from Global Data, the edible oil market shows significant growth potential in Africa over the coming years. While product differentiation plays a big role in attracting consumers, packaging cost savings and production efficiency are important to maintain competitiveness. Moreover, it is crucial to bring sustainability to the fore in both package design and production. How can edible oil players take advantage of growing demand and the trends? According to Global Data, bottled oil accounts for the majority of the market with six billion units; edible oil is expected to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% by 2024 within the food category in the Middle East, Africa and India region. Across the African continent, price is a key driver that influences consumers’ purchase decisions in edible oil. Domestic players dominate the market. Hence, their ability to rapidly fulfil consumer demand for competitive prices and availability plays a crucial role. Despite the outbreak of the pandemic, the edible oil market continues to grow, since it is essential for cooking. For producers, cost and productivity are therefore key to being competitive. To make a product that will stand out on the shelves, but simultaneously be lightweight, Sidel’s packaging experts are able to provide customised bottle design. With modern bottle design techniques from bottle digital mock-ups, technical designs to prototypes with 3D printed models, the bottle design can match customers’ preferences and be presented in real size before mass production. When it comes to production, either with a complete line or standalone equipment, Sidel provides a full range of solutions, from blowing and labelling to end of line equipment with shrink-wrappers, case packers and palletisers. The right tools and expertise to help with your rPET goals! Agr is uniquely positioned to support your venture into rPET bottle manufacturing with a powerful combination of Process Control tools, Process Consultants, and decades of industry experience. AGRINTL.COM • +1.724.482.2163
BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 21 Redesigned bottle with increased practicality Sidel recently supported one of Africa’s leading edible oil producers, Willowton, with redesigning the bottle and installing two standalone blowers – EvoBlow SBO 10 and SBO 16. The new cylindrical Sunfoil silhouette bottle not only had an elevated aesthetic level, but also increased practicality due to its easy-to-handle beltinspired design and reduced diameter. The company also benefited from its two blowers, ensuring higher performance and production integrity. “With the Sidel blowers, we have already increased our yearly production volume by 50% and we are ready to handle any future additional demand as well,” says Faisal Modi, Operations Manager at Willowton. Enhanced productivity and cost-saving Sidel has a strong heritage in edible oil, acting as a one-stop-shop partner in proposing complete and integrated PET lines including a combi configuration, which can help minimise equipment and conveying footprint by up to 30%. Agrimed chose Sidel’s complete edible oil line solution to sustain its leading market position in Tunisia and other export regions such as Libya and the Middle East. The company already owned a Sidel blower and labeller for various bottle sizes. As a result of good performance from their existing Sidel equipment, Agrimed invested in a new complete line including the new blowing/filling/capping combi with Serac. Net weight filling technology dedicated for its 1 l bottle line, running at 18,000 bph. The highspeed complete line has enhanced its productivity by reducing the previous long changeover time. Mohamed Laamouri, Plant Manager at Agrimed stressed that many costs had been saved with bottle lightweighting options while bottle robustness has also been optimised. This aspect is especially important to him as these bottles will be in wrap around cases. Today, edible oil is a very competitive market category, essentially driven by product and brand differentiation as well as competitiveness through packaging cost savings, production efficiency and permanent asset optimisation. Sidel states that it has generated many success cases with edible oil players in the Middle East and Africa, both in the low and high speed market. Sidel addresses the low speed market through Synergy, its linear blow moulding provider. www.sidel.com September 12-16, 2022 Munich, Germany Hall C5, Booth 440 Innovative solutions for special preforms PMC units for all major PET systems German Technology
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