Blowmolding

Adding to a string of equipment and system upgrade investments made this year, Currier Plastics (Auburn, NY) recently added a real time production monitoring software system to its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems to, along with improved production cycling, will help increase Currier's energy cost advantage over glass for its plastic packaging.

In its search for the best package to market a new line of bath oils, one European cosmetics brand owner opted for bottles that are extrusion blowmolded of clarified polypropylene (c-PP). More established materials including PVC and glycol-modified PET also were considered but lost out in the materials specifying race.

A plastic package for sending mail-order vitamins and similar products through standard letter post, rather than the more expensive parcel post, has been introduced. The blowmolded HDPE package, with its width-to-depth ratio of more than 4:1, created a significant technical challenge for the processor, RPC Containers.

Nissei ASB Machine Co. (Nagano, Japan) will demonstrate its newest one-step stretch-blowmolding machine, the ASB-150DPW, during the 26th annual SPE Blow Molding Conference October 5-6 in Atlanta. Conference attendees will have an opportunity to view the new model during a demonstration session and lunch Oct. 6 at ASB headquarters in Atlanta.

With €300 million of capital injected into it, Europe's largest PET supplier, La Seda de Barcelona Group, says it is financially stable and ready to invest, including in its own package processing business unit, Artenius PET Packaging Europe (APPE), the former Amcor Europe PET business.

Plastics packaging major Graham Packaging (today, Aug. 9) announced it would acquire Liquid Container LP and its subsidiaries for $568 million, subject to certain adjustments. With the buy, Graham (York, PA) adds 14 blowmolding facilities in the U.S. to its portfolio, with those serving customers in the food and household markets. The processor, headquartered in West Chicago, IL, processes PP, PET, and HDPE.

SPI, the Plastics Industry Trade Association (Washington, DC), has let it be known that the organization's first Processors Conference will be held in Irving, TX, November 16-18, 2010, and that it has lined up key speakers on both business and technical topics.

The Business of Plastics Processing sessions will include such topics as mergers and acquisitions in the processing industry; resin trends and forecasting; and a business roundtable with real-time discussion.

They will benefit from a trip to this fall's K show, that is, with exhibitors in the stretch blowmolding space already giving word of developments sure to improve even the most high-end processing facility.

Based on statistics recently provided by the plastics and rubber machinery association within German trade group VDMA, the past 10 years have produced one significant winner in the global processing machinery market in terms of export market share gained—China—while the loss of export market share has been shared by a number of countries but felt most harshly in absolute terms in Japan. 

Personal care product manufacturer Zotos International Inc. (Darien, CT) has gained approval for what it says will be the largest wind-energy project for any manufacturing company in the U.S. City officials in Geneva, NY voted unanimously to allow Zotos to move forward with its plans for a $7 million, 3.3-mW (megawatt) wind-energy system.