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See ASB machinery in operation at Booth #763 (West Hall), the ASB-150DPW will be running in full production producing 500mL PET jars with 63mm neck from a 18-cavity mold at 12 second cycle (5,400BPH).

Be ASB’s guest; click here for complementary pass registration ($120 value)

It will be producing 100mL PET containers from a 7-cavity mold at 2,000BPH with a ‘twist’

We look forward to seeing you there at our booth; Lower South 5285

PACK EXPO 2011 website, information and registration.

Ichiro Mizuuchi, managing director of Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd., at the company’s Plastivision booth

MUMBAI, INDIA (Jan. 20, 4:55 p.m. ET) — Hoping to capture more of the growing Indian market and tap into lower-cost research and development, Japanese blow molding equipment maker Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd. is investing more than $22 million to double the size of its factory near Mumbai in Maharashtra.
The Indian market for Nissei’s machinery remained strong even as world markets sputtered in the global recession, and there is still significant potential to convert products packaged in glass and other materials to PET, said Ichiro Mizuuchi, managing director of Nissei’s India subsidiary, in a Jan. 20 interview at a trade show in Mumbai.
“Very fortunately, the Indian market did not have any recession,” Mizuuchi said.
He was interviewed at the company’s booth at the Plastivision show, held Jan. 20-24 in Mumbai.
Nissei broke ground in December, and plans to finish the expansion by October 2012, boosting employment from about 700 to more than 1,000 and expanding capacity for making blow molding machines by 65 percent, he said. The company currently makes about 400 machines a year there.
The expansion will also double its capacity for manufacturing molds to about 2,000 molds a year, Mizuuchi said.
Nissei set up the Mumbai facility in 2000, primarily as a lower-cost manufacturing spot, he said. That remains a significant reason for the factory — about 65 percent of what Mumbai makes is shipped to the company’s headquarters in Nagano, Japan, to be sent around the world.
But sales within India have grown substantially, from only about 10 percent of the Mumbai’s operations in 2000 to 35 percent now, he said.
The Indian market for PET packaging is similar to the U.S. market 30 or more years ago, before there was significant switching of products to PET, he said.
If measured by market, Nissei said, India uses PET in bottles and packaging in only about 20 percent of the applications used in mature markets in the U.S. and Japan.
And if measured per capita, the gap is much wider — the average Indian uses only about 1/40th of the PET of the average American, Mizuuchi said.
That’s huge potential, he noted, although he said India will not switch to PET as rapidly as the U.S. did, where for example 80 percent of peanut butter jars switched to PET in one year.
The switch is expected to be slower because so much of the population in India is very poor and uses very inexpensive packaging like plastic bags or pouches to buy small amounts of milk or liquids, he said.
“Over the next 20-30 years, they will buy this type of PET packaging” he said. “But it will take time.”
Still, he said given the sheer size of India’s population, with 1.2 billion people, even a relatively small shift such as another 10 percent of the population using PET bottles is a significant market. And the pace of change in India is accelerating, he said.
“That is why there is huge potential here and why we are concentrating on India,” Mizuuchi said.
Beyond production, Nissei sees significant potential to tap into India’s technical skills and do more research and development work there, he said.
The new factory space will give Nissei more room to do R&D, and possibly create round-the-clock engineering in shifts, he said. It will also expand the range of models Nissei can produce in India, broadening beyond the simpler machines it produces there now, he said.
The Japanese headquarters will continue to make machines India cannot, such as those for medical markets, hot fill or specialty markets, in particular, he said.
Mizuuchi said he wanted to take advantage of the exhibition to demonstrate how the firm intends to expand its capabilities in India.
Nissei brought to its booth in Mumbai one of the company’s larger Japanese-made specialty machines, its model 650 EXHD used for making 5-gallon polycarbonate water bottles. “I am telling the customer we will be able to make this type of machine in India after the new factory space is built,” he said. “We are looking for the future to make specialized machines in India.”

The seminar is set to highlight resin overcapacity, the trend towards container lightweighting, challenges from bio-based materials and reduced consumer demand for bottled water, and energy drinks and carbonated beverages have put the PET industry at a crucial point in its development. Will it opt to continue the recent spate of market consolidations as the primary strategy to revive profitability? Or, will stakeholders become convinced that investment in new technology innovation is the preferred route to achieving more enduring positive results? This is the overriding challenge facing PET industry leaders as they gather for NOVA-PACK 2011, The 27th International Conference on PET Containers for Food & Beverages on January 26-27 at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Florida, USA.

ATLANTA – Nissei ASB Co., the wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd., has introduced the HSB-6M, a new two-step reheat stretch-blow molding machine for the production of wide mouth hot-fill PET containers. The company will demonstrate the new machine during K 2010, the 18th International Trade Fair Plastics + Rubber, Oct. 27-Nov. 3, in Dusseldorf, Germany (Hall 14 Booth B38).

In Europe and the U.S., the company foresees strong global growth for wide mouth hot-fill PET jars as a replacement for glass for a range of hot-fill foods such as sauces, pickles, jams, and jelly. Many of these products require filling at high temperatures (90 deg C) and until now glass has been the only viable option. This technology will enable production of PET jars which can be filled at temperatures above 90 deg C (194 deg F). Hot-fill PET jars will yield a major weight reduction and many sustainability advantages over glass including reduced freight costs and lower carbon footprint, according to ASB.

“The market for wide mouth hot-fill food containers appears ready to make the conversion from glass to lightweight PET and we have unique technology that will meet the demand of this high-growth segment,” said Jamie Pace, vice president and general manager of Nissei ASB Co.

The HSB-6M can produce 300ml to 600ml hot-fill PET jars with standard 63-mm-diam. twist-off neck finishes at a nominal production rate of 6000 jars per hour. The new two-step reheat system incorporates the company’s “double blow molding” technology which has been successfully used in Asia for more than 15 years for the production of narrow-neck hot-fill bottles. In the double blow molding production system, the preform is first blown in a primary mold and then undergoes high-temperature conditioning before passing to the final, secondary mold.

Along with the HSB-6M blow molding unit, ASB is launching a matching injection molding machine for preform production. The PM-170/111M model is a preform molding machine which injection molds preforms for either jars or bottles. Additionally, ASB is introducing the CM-6000M model neck crystallizer. This new machine takes the injection molded preforms and crystallizes the necks to enhance the heat-resistant properties of this part of the preform. This crystallization method reduces weight by as much as 10% to 20% compared to conventional necks produced by other competitive systems. These two machines are placed upstream from the HSB-6M blow molding machine and round out the dedicated production line for hot-fill PET jars.

ASB is selling the complete line globally and expects 10 lines to be commercially operational within 12 months.

About Nissei ASB Co. Nissei ASB Company in Atlanta, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd., based in Nagano Prefecture, is a leading manufacturer of one-step and two-step stretch-blow molding machines for the production of PET containers for the food, beverage, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. The Atlanta office is responsible for all U.S. & Canadian territories and offers sales and marketing, technical service, spare parts, container design, demonstration machines, and customer training. In addition to the main office and plant in Japan, Nissei has manufacturing in Mumbai, India, and Shanghai, China. The company has 80 installation sites and more than 550 machines installed in the U.S. and Canada. For more information, call (404) 699-7755 or visit www.nissei-asbus.com.

Nissei Asb Machine Company Ltd
125 W. Lake Pkwy.
Atlanta, GA, 30336, USA

http://news.thomasnet.com/company_detail.html?cid=905881

The machine, introduced Oct. 6 during the annual Blow Molding Conference in Atlanta, can produce up to 10,800 bottles per hour, depending on mold design and cavitation, said General Manager Jamie Pace. Nissei ASB Co. is the U.S. subsidiary of Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd.

The machine can handle narrow and wide-mouth containers ranging from 50 milliliters to 1.5 liters for applications such as hotel amenity liquor bottles, energy containers peanut butter and other foods.

ASB said it expects to complete 12 orders in fiscal 2010.

 By Rhoda Miel | PLASTICS NEWS STAFF

Posted November 4, 2010

http://www.plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=20224