On September 12, 2013, Husky Injection Molding Systems hosted its European Beverage Packaging Conference, a major stop on its year-long World Tour. Held at its EMEA headquarters in Dudelange, Luxembourg, the event was attended by more than 90 business leaders from around the world and showcased Husky’s broad range of solutions for preform and closure manufacturing.
“Our European Beverage Packaging Conference proved to be a great opportunity to both demonstrate to customers our comprehensive range of new beverage packaging solutions, as well as learn from our customers about their needs and what we can do to support them,” said John Galt, Husky’s President and CEO. “This event, more so than any other we’ve held this year, has given us the opportunity to have more focused, meaningful conversations with customers. We’ve been able to gather valuable customer feedback, as well as communicate our strategy as a long-term beverage packaging partner, which is to help our customers maximize productivity, reduce waste and streamline their operations by providing complete solutions for all applications and volumes.”
The event included focused customer meetings, facility tours, networking opportunities, product demonstrations and presentations from Husky and industry experts. Keynote speaker Jochen Hirdina, Vice President of Plastic Technology for Krones AG, delivered a presentation on economic blowing and filling bloc solutions for water, carbonated soft drink and sensitive products. Key presentations by Husky experts covered the topics of beverage closure injection equipment trends, developments in PET preform manufacturing and making the case to purchase new equipment.
At the conference Husky also showcased its complete range of solutions for beverage packaging, including systems, tooling, software and services.
A highlight was an exclusive preview demonstration of Husky’s next generation HyPET® High Performance Package (HPP) 5.0 system, which will be officially launching before the end of the year. The HyPET® HPP 5.0 400 system produced a 22.26 gram preform for a 500 mL aseptic juice application, running an 8.1 second cycle time and using resin supplied by Indorama. Husky also demonstrated a HyPET® system with a new 96-cavity mold upgrade, which offers a more than 30% increase in production capacity, as well as a turnkey H-PET™ AE (All-Electric) system, which offers added value to customers entering into or expanding their presence in the beverage packaging market.
Husky also demonstrated its range of complete beverage closure systems, including its provenHyCAP™ system for high output beverage closure manufacturing. The HyCAP™ 225 system produced a PCO 1881 closure for a carbonated soft drink application, running a 3.6 second cycle time with a 48-cavity Husky mold. Husky also made the European debut of its revolutionary HyCAP™ High Performance Package (HPP) system. The system produced a 2.5 gram 33 mm closure at a 3.2 second cycle time with a 72-cavity Husky mold. Both closure systems on display used resin supplied by Borealis and Master Batch supplied by Ampacet, with Greenbox, PSG and IMDvista supplying downstream equipment.
All the systems demonstrated at the conference used Shotscope NX™, Husky’s integrated process and production monitoring software that helps manufacturers improve productivity while minimizing scrap and downtime. Shotscope NX™ allows manufacturers to collect, manage and analyze production information in real-time and respond instantly to issues that can occur in the manufacturing environment, resulting in the ability to produce more consistent, higher quality parts.
The Husky World Tour 2013 is a series of global customer events that have taken place throughout the year in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. With multiple local events spanning the globe, the tour gives current and prospective customers more direct access to Husky’s latest technologies at a local level while providing targeted solutions to help customers reduce variability, improve part cost and increase productivity. Final events for the year include two Specialty Closures Conferences, one in São Paolo, Brazil on September 24, and another in Shanghai, China on November 5, as well as a Hot Runner Conference in Milton, Vermont on November 20.
