Steve Warren, managing director of SMI Pacifica, a packaging machinery supplier, speaks to Celia Johnson about the latest trends, developments and challenges facing the PET and rigid plastics industries.
Q. What do you see as the main trends and developments within the PET and rigid plastics industries?
A. Some of the main developments include the shortening of supply lines, resistance to shipping bottles full of air, marketing flexibility, the reduction of unit costs and just-in-time preparedness, a concept which describes the process of components arriving at the assembly line just before they are needed, cutting out the need for expensive inventory, warehousing and double handling.
Q. What are some of the challenges facing manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of PET and rigid plastics?
A. In light of environmental concerns and climate change, we can expect increasing consumer resistance to packaging waste, especially the perceived depletion of fossil resources and wasted energy.
The packaging industry has a big job ahead of them to educate consumers about the environmental impacts of plastics waste, as it is often the case that packaging seems wasteful to the customer but is already a very efficient way of delivering the product.
We need to help consumers understand just how small a portion of the world’s resources go into plastics — about 4% of oil production. Packaging and PET are only a small part of that 4%.
Q. How are these challenges being overcome?
A. At SMI Pacifica, in-house blow-moulders are stripping away whole layers of wasted energy and handling, a process which, in Europe, where energy and space are at a premium, is commonplace, with even quite humble beverage manufacturers blowing their own bottles.
Because their bottles go straight from the blower into production, they not only reduce purchasing costs, but save on trucking, forking, warehousing, depalletising and rinsing.
Q. What is being demanded from PET and rigid plastics at a manufacturing level?
A. In Australia’s very competitive marketplace, there is a demand for more custom shapes, a faster turnaround of new designs and a greater range of capacities.
In terms of the European market, we have had to meet a demand for very large PET bottles, usually for water. European customers carry their drinking water home in 5L bottles, as opposed to Australian customers who buy companion-sized bottles.
SMI Pacifica is also supplying polypropylene blow-moulders for corrosive products, oils and chemicals. Now, more than ever, bottle making has become part of the bottling process.
Q. What are some of the latest innovations and technologies in the PET and rigid plastics industries?
A. Reliability is always going to be the latest news.
By replacing ‘knee and thighbone’ mechanicals with computer-controlled motors throughout the machine, SMI Pacifica came up with bottle blow-moulders that are the core of many beverage businesses.
Being fully automated, an SMI Pacifica blow-moulder can stand alone and often sits out of site, running 24 hours a day. Air conveying then feeds the bottles into storage silos or straight into the filler.
There is no need for a rinser if the bottle is conveyed in a controlled and clean atmosphere, so hygiene can be improved while reducing costs.
SMI Pacifica’s mould-making division uses the latest technology for fast design and production of custom bottle designs, making it economical to introduce uniquely bottled products onto the market.
Q. What advice or key messages can you offer the industry at present?
A. Take another look at your bottle purchasing contract. Then add the prima facie unit cost to the wasted handling, storage and energy costs between your supplier and your filling line.
You wouldn’t believe how much you can save by blowing your own bottles.
Particularly for water bottlers in Europe where the selling price is low, customers that have started to make their own bottles have not only survived in business but have actually grown their market shares.
It is remarkable that Australia, a country renowned for adapting to new technology, has been so slow to realise the benefits of today’s in-house bottle making systems.
Click here to read an interview with Daryl Perry, key account manager PET at VIP Packaging, about trends and developments in PET.
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