Short runs

* At the Medtec trade show in Stuttgart in March 2008, an official at Dutch thermoformer Nelipack said the firm is considering expansion in India, Russia and China, as demand from the medical market continues to grow well. Nelipack is one of few thermoformers, so far, that performs cleanroom thermoforming, of PET, APET, PP and other materials.

* S&G Co. Ltd. (Ucheon, South Korea) will acquire Peak International Ltd. (Hong Kong) in a deal pairing a supplier of extruded and thermoformed products for the semiconductor industry with a packaging product supplier. S&G paid $24.8 million cash in a deal expected to close in the second quarter pending Peak stockholder approval.

Peak makes packaging for the storage, transportation, and automated handling of disk drive components, semiconductor devices, wafer fabrication products, and precision medical products. Headquartered in Hong Kong, it has manufacturing operations in Shenzhen, China.

* Finnish packaging processor Huhtamaki has launched a second thermoformed r-PET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate) line consisting of round containers weighing 180g, 200g, 250g, and 300g with a 101-mm diameter for short shelf-life products like dips and wet salads. By volume, the packaging contains between 40 and 70% post-consumer PET scrap from recycled bottles. Huhtamaki says the products offer clarity and crack resistance as well as food-contact approval.

* Thermoforming sheet supplier Kleerdex Co. LLC (Bloomsburg, PA) has named Pacific Polymer Group as its newest manufacturer’s representative for more than 30 grades of its Kydex thermoplastic sheet in the western regions of the U.S. and Canada. Pacific Polymer Group has offices in Irvine and Roseville, CA, as well as Vancouver, WA.

* Soon after our last thermoforming Technical Bulletin was sent, thermoforming machinery manufacturer Brown Machine (Beaverton, MI; www.brown-machine.com) was acquired by new owner Spell Capital (Minneapolis, MN), which acquired a majority interest in Pacific Production Technologies (PPT; Mt. Carmel, IL), the group that controls Brown and sister firm Epco Machinery (Fremont, OH), which services, repairs and refurbishes plastics processing machinery. No financial terms were disclosed. Spell bought its stake from Madison Capital Partners (Chicago, IL), which last January merged Brown and Epco into Pacific Press Technologies. Brown Machinery is the largest North American and third largest worldwide manufacturer of continuous and cut-sheet thermoforming machines.