First-time exhibitor at Interpack, Octal (Hall 9, Stand B19), will be displaying the quality and uniformity of its APET sheet made from its own PET resin in an integrated process.
Visitors to the stand will be able to see and order both Octal’s resin and APET sheet product. APET sheet will be displayed in roll form.
Stand presentations will also show the efficiency of the company’s integrated PET resin and APET sheet manufacturing facility, which is in Salalah, Oman. The plant is the first to be developed that is dedicated fully to APET production from resin to sheet. This is in contrast to the traditional model, where resin engineered primarily for beverage bottles is also used for thermoforming.
State of the art customized equipment used by Octal ensures an APET sheet with superior gauge control, gloss and transparency, providing better productivity, higher yields, and better end tray, and that rolls are of uniform quality from the outer layer all the way to the core.
Octal, which is investing $300 million in proprietary technology and custom engineered production lines to manufacture both PET resin and APET rigid films, started initial operations in December 2006. Since then, it has been delivering superior quality APET sheet, with improved gauge control that can reduce thermoforming raw material costs and increase productivity. When gauge is held to less than one per cent variation, packaging manufacturers know with greater precision how many trays they will produce per metric ton of APET sheet.
Octal chief operating officer Joe Barenberg explains: “That also means that thermoformers don’t have to worry about unpredictable thin spots, making it possible to further reduce the sheet’s gauge to save cost. Taken together, this can mean savings from three to eight per cent.”
The company’s investment is in response to clear growth trends for convenience food packaging and the increased use of clear rigid packaging for consumer products.
Adds Barenberg: “Growth of APET as a packaging material has been strong. In fact, global trends show that there is a three to four million metric ton market in the making. We work as a material supplier and partner to the industry, supporting APET’s growth to meet its market potential. Our entire process - from raw materials to finished APET sheet rolls – has been designed to maximise thermoforming productivity. Our value proposition is to deliver the highest quality and most consistent APET sheet to our thermoforming, brand and retailer partners, enabling them to achieve the highest level of productivity and yield. This will dramatically improve the economics of APET clear rigid packaging and facilitate conversion to APET in applications where it is the best material choice, but where economics had previously precluded its use.”
