Dear Readers,

For our industry, the jewel of the 2017 exhibition year will be Drinktec, held from 11-15 September in Munich. 11-12 September are particularly significant dates for us PETnologists, as we are marking our 20th PETnology Conference in conjunction with Drinktec, in the ICM on the Drinktec exhibition centre.

Since 2001, PETnology Conferences have reflected the changing market conditions which were optimized as a result of different technologies and machines. Such events show the growing tendency for individual stages of the value-added chain to merge and overlap.Even three years ago, the question “Are we green enough?” was raised at thePETnology Conference. This declared ecological goal is increasingly seen as a collective aim and viewed within its wider context: connecting comPETence. It affects all the stages of the value added chain: material und additive, preform und bottle, filling, capping and decorating, and finally even recycling.In addition to the pure engineering and increasing digitalisation, societal topics and consumer requirements also play an increasing role. These are reflected in the various initiatives from large brands and foundations.

Around the topic of sustainability, alternative raw materials and bioplastics increasingly have an effect, and the trend is unmistakable: Alongside numerous start-ups and small businesses, even the large raw material producers are now gradually expanding their product ranges. Many filling companies and consumer goods manufacturers have drawn up ambitious goals for their ecological footprint, which they pledge to attain through the use of alternative materials. As an alternative to PET, the bio-based PEF has recently received interim approval from EPBP for the recyclability of polyethylenefuranoate (PEF) in the European bottle recycling market. Read more about this on page104 and discover more about the latest developments in PEF as well as Synvina, the joint venture from Avantium and BASF, at the PETnology Conference on11-12 September in Munich.

The LiquiForm Group is also updating us on their development. This promising alternative stretch-blow-fill method was already presented at our platform in 2014 and 2015. To find out more, read the article on and join us at our PETnology conference 2017.

In this issue, we also take a look at the key trends in injection moulding. To this end, we held in-depth discussions about the challenges facing the preform and closure machinery market with John Galt, CEO at HUSKY, Tom Goeke, CEO at MILACRON and Robert Schad, Chairman at ATHENA.

Yours,

Dr. Otto Appel