This year we are going to see an unprecedented overdose of trade show activity. Not only do we have both must-attend mega events Interpack and drupa taking place in April and May respectively at Dusseldorf and Emballage 2008 – another important show - in Paris in November, there is a plethora of other packaging related shows in the South Asian region, all scheduled between March and December this year. These include Labeltech 2008 at Mumbai in March, India Packaging Show 2008 and All About Food Expo 2008 at New Delhi in August, Indiapack 2008 at Mumbai in September, Label Summit South China 2008 at Guangzhou in September and the India Label Show 2008 at New Delhi in December.

While it is exciting to see so much interest in packaging events, it is really time that trade show organisers sat down and worked things out among themselves to prevent ‘show fatigue’. Not only does the interest of exhibitors get dissipated, the strain in terms of logistics and deployment of quality personnel, not to mention finances, on industry majors is immense. Especially, those who wish to exhibit working machinery or those who need to be present at more than one of these events will find themselves stretched to the point where they actually start questioning the wisdom and effectiveness of participation. Even potential visitors get confused about which shows are worth attending. It would be so much more useful and productive to see that there are no more than two large focussed events spread out conveniently over the year in a particular region than to have a clutter of sub-optimum shows.

The South and South East Asian countries are also witnessing a veritable flood of investments in packaging. This issue alone reports on an additional 250,000 MT per annum of new BOPP film capacity and 13,500 MT per annum of CPP film coming up in Asia. I also know of six more large BOPP/BOPET plants being planned in India and the Middle East. There is also a lot of activity in investments to manufacture other packaging materials and machinery in China, India and Vietnam. According to another forecast by PCI Consulting, 50 per cent of new global investments in conversion and printing in the next 5 years are expected to come up in China and India. I am sure that, in due course of time, we can expect the Asian region to emerge as the largest producer, and possibly consumer, of packaging. We need to convert our volumes into technological prowess as well and this will be a major challenge. Assuming the mantle of technological leadership is something we have to build into our goals. All in all, a tightening of seatbelts is well in order and we at PSA are really looking forward to bringing you all the dizzying news and developments.

Jindal Polyfilms – Stand No. A1, Hall 7.2

Jindal Poly Films (JPFL) are the largest exhibitors from India. We had an exclusive interview with Mr. Samir Banerjee, their Director – Marketing, about their plans and what they will focus on at Interpack. JPFL have a phenomenal track-record and have become a major international player in BOPET and BOPP films in just 6 years of existence (see the write-up in our November-December 2007 issue). Their film plant at Nashik is already the world’s largest single film producing facility. The key to their success has been their single-minded dedication to the business and policy of investing only in top-of-the-line high-output equipment that gives them the edge on both quality and costs. Their BOPP plants are just 3 years old and are the highest output lines of their kind anywhere. They are adding 2 new hi-tech Dornier BOPP lines this year and have already decided to install another 2 lines next year, each capable of turning out 45,000 MT per year. With these additions, their total BOPP capacity will become 270,000 MT per year and, in this process, they are likely to leapfrog Mobil-Exxon Films to become the world’s largest BOPP film producer. They are already the global leaders in premium segments like filmic labelstock substrates and release liners.
At Interpack, JPFL will be displaying their full range of both BOPET and BOPP films but the emphasis will be on the latter. Some of the high added-value products they will be exhibiting are:

1. BOPP films coated with PVDC, acrylics and low-temperature sealants for applications like packaging of snack-foods, confectionery, bakery products, meat and tobacco overwraps.
2. Plasma enhanced metallised films with copolyester coatings for better barrier and bonding to other substrates.
3. Both BOPET and BOPP substrates for labelstock manufacture. These include opaque films as well as clear high-transparency films for the “no-label” look and substrates for silicone coating to produce high-end release liners.

Manish Packaging – Stand No. A46, Hall 7.2

Manish Packaging manufactures a variety of PVC films for packaging applications. It is a ISO 9001:2000 certified company that exports its films to over 35 countries worldwide. It first developed food grade PVC twist wrap films and its materials can run at speeds up to 2300 twists per minute. It has also recently developed cast PVC shrink films for shrink sleeves and labels. At Interpack, Manish will be displaying their full range of PVC films.

Makers Polyfilms – Stand No. B34, Hall  11

Makers Polyfilms produce a range of films for shrink wrapping and other industrial applications. At Interpack, they will be showcasing their whole range of products that include PVC and PET films for conventional shrink wrapping and shrink sleeves and labels with high shrink and transparency and low thickness variation.

Multipack Systems –  Stand No. D07, Hall No. 5

Multipack Systems are a leading manufacturer of HFFS and flow pack machines and automatic product feeding and handling systems including fully servo driven wrappers and feeding systems. They have over 1600 installations in operation in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Their machines are used to pack all kinds of biscuits and cookies, chocolate bars, cereal, nutraceutical/snack bars, noodle cakes and other food products. Established customers include such well-known names and brands like Britannia, Cadbury, Danone, GSK, ITC, Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, Nestle, Parle, Pepsi and Sara Lee. They have also adapted their standard machines to pack various kinds of non-food products as well.

According To Mr. Bharat Patel, MD of Multipack, at Interpack they will be displaying their new high speed integrated chocolate wrapping machine with a row feeding system.

Nichrome India – Stand No. C47, Hall 6

Nichrome are one of India’s pioneers in the manufacture of VFFS machines for a variety of products. They have over 4,000 installations operating in 40 countries world-wide. They are certified under ISO 9000:2001 and ISO 22000 for food safety management systems which exceed the requirements of HACCP

Pakona Engineers – Stand No. D54, Hall 6

Pakona Engineers are one of India’s leading manufacturers of packaging machinery and specialise in FFS machines. They have been regular exhibitors at Interpack and this year they will be exhibiting their new PK – 100 HFFS system which, according to their MD Mr. Ashok Kothari, is an improved version of their PK – 90 HFFS machine.

The PK – 100 series is specially designed for high speed, high versatility and easy change-over options. It incorporates movable sealing jaws, airshaft for roll mounting, splicing table for easy roll changes, an autoweb alignment system and a manifold rotary mechanism. It comes with various options to handle powders, liquids or solid products and can deliver both stand-up pouches and 3 or 4-side sealed pouches. It can also produce shaped pouches and can insert a zipper, straw or spout placed either at the centre or at a corner.

Parksons Packaging – Stand No. F02, Hall 9

Parksons is India’s leading manufacturers of folding cartons and the only Indian carton manufacturer to receive ISO 9000:2001 BRC/Iop certification for food packaging and PS 9000:2001 certification for pharmaceutical packaging. At Interpack, they will be showcasing their entire product range that includes the following:

–    Folding cartons.

1. Litho-laminated fluted cartons.
2. Plastic cartons.
3. Cartons made from non-absorbent substrates like foil/board, metallised paperboard and holographic board.
4. Labels.
5. Retail ready packs.
6. Lined cartons.

Positive Packaging – Stand No. B19, Hall 11

Positive Packaging are a part of the Enpee Group and are leading players in flexible packaging with operations in India, Dubai and Nigeria. According to their Director Mr. Krishnamurthy, they will be showcasing their full range of products viz. flexible laminates, plasma metallised films, CPP films and rotogravure cylinders.
Enpee’s Acuprint Systems division have just commissioned India’s first direct laser engraving plant for rotogravure cylinders during February 2008. The announcement is going to be one of their major focus areas at Interpack. Earlier, they were offering only electromechanically engraved cylinders.

Precision Gears – Stand No. D13, Hall 16

Precision Gears is a well-known manufacturer of blister-packing and thermoforming machines. They started off in 1978 with technical collaboration with Hassia for manufacturing thermoforming machines, primarily blister-packing machines for pharmaceutical products. After establishing a name for themselves in the international market, they used their in-house R & D to further improve and modify their equipment. In June 1995, they became a subsidiary of the well-known I.M.A group of Italy. This tie-up saw them add cartoning systems to their product portfolio.
At Interpack, they will be housed in the I.M.A. stand, where they will be displaying their newly developed C 102 blister packing machines for deep-draw applications like packaging of injectibles. I.M.A. themselves will have over 20 machines of various kinds on display.

Span Filling Systems – Stand No. C21, Hall 8a

Span Filling Systems is a manufacturer of equipment for the filling of liquids into rigid containers. At Interpack, Span will be demonstrating their Spanpak Dualfil machines that employ a proprietary filling concept that uses a double-acting piston and a multi-way control valve that delivers an equal volume of product in both the forward and backward strokes of the piston. Filling can be accomplished using either a single-stroke or a multi-stroke operation. The piston is normally driven with an air cylinder which has a manual stroke limiter to control the filled volume. The machine employs a PLC with which the user can control the number of strokes which permits filling of containers of any size. Other control options include electrical or all pneumatic circuits as required for the filling of explosive products. All Dualfil machines come with a product tank.

A wide variety of nozzle designs and filling techniques are available to meet even the most demanding applications like drip-free, laminar flow, conventional top-fill, bottom-up and sub-surface filling. Products can range from thin to highly viscous liquids and from hot to cold. The filling cylinders and nozzles are completely removable for easy cleaning up.

The filling pumps are double-acting positive displacement piston units made from stainless steel with Teflon seals and gaskets. Pumps are held together with quick-release clamps for easy maintenance. Double-acting pumps allow product on both sides of the piston chamber, thus increasing the life of the product cylinder and seals and allow for higher fill speeds.

The present range of machines have from 2 to 8 nozzles depending on the filling speed required but higher configurations can be worked out if greater speeds are required. The machines are being used to fill a wide variety of liquids in sectors like paints, cosmetics, food and pharmaceuticals.

Subnil Packaging Machineries – Stand No. E49, Hall 6
Subnil are Asia’s leading manufacturers of machinery for filling of tubes together with in-line cartoning, bundling and case-packing with output ranging from 35 to 420 tubes per minute. They have manufacturing facilities located at Hyderabad and Pune. At Interpack, they will be displaying the LIMBUS 100 plastic tube filling line, which is their fastest single-head filling system.

Sunrise Packaging – Stand No. J24, Hall 9

Sunrise Packaging is a ISO 9001:2000 certified company that manufactures a variety of packaging products.

At Interpack, they will be displaying the following products:

1. Thermal bags that keep cold items cold and hot items hot for several hours.
2. Exclusive and fancy bags for candy, chocolates and bakery products.
3. Extrusion laminated and solventless laminated structures,
4. BOPP bags.
5. Gift wrapping sheets.

Uflex, formerly known as Flex, is India’s largest packaging group (Group sales of US$ 720 million) and the only really vertically integrated flexible packaging company that has in-house facilities for producing films, laminates, pouches and total solutions ranging from basic inputs like PET chips, inks and adhesives to plain and metallised oriented films, laminates, CPP films, bags & pouches, labels, holographic films, packaging and converting machinery and rotogravure cylinders. They have become a major international player with a large part of their output (US$ 120 million) being exported to over 70 countries worldwide including sophisticated markets like Western Europe, the USA and Latin America. They set up their first overseas plant at Dubai to produce BOPET films and this line achieved a utilisation of over 100 per cent in less than 2 years. Buoyed by this success, they commissioned a second 8.7 meter wide BOPET line in 2007, enhancing annual capacity to 45,000 MT per year. One more BOPP film line and one PET chips plant are also on the anvil for installation at Dubai.

They have also announced the setting up a new 8.7 meter 26,000 MT per year state-of-the-art BOPET plant in Mexico together with a high-barrier vacuum metallising plant. This facility will be operational by early 2009. At a later stage, they intend to add another BOPET line and metalliser here along with a thermal lamination machine.

We spoke to Mr. Pradeep Tyle, Senior President and CEO of their Films Division, and Mr. Amitava Ray, President and CEO of their Converted Products Division on their plans for Interpack.

While the Films Division will be showcasing their entire range of transparent and metallised  BOPET/BOPP/CPP films, their major focus will be on their new Mexico facility and their recent innovations like heat sealable polyester films, direct embossable BOPET films, polyester films for liquid packaging (bag-in-box application, plain and metallised matt BOPET films, eco-friendly BOPET films using 25 to 30 per cent recycled post-consumer waste, BOPP films for thermal lamination and ultra-clear transparent and metallised BOPET films. 

Their Converted Products division have just commissioned a new plant at Jammu in Northern India to supplement production of flexible packaging laminates (see our report elsewhere in this issue). While they will also be featuring their entire production range at Interpack, the major focus will be on their various new developments and innovations like Quad Seal Bags (for which they have won both the DuPont and AIMCAL awards), sleeve-in-pouch systems, laminated ulti-loom woven PP bags with several closure and reclosure options, recyclable weather-resistant pouches, primary packs for toothbrushes and shaving tackle, stand-up flexible “bottles” with reclosable spouts, single-use on-the-go etiquette cut pouches for toiletries and personal care products, high-barrier nano-clay filled nylon coextruded structures, flex-crack resistant laminates, downgauged foil laminates using 6.34 micron foil, patented diaphragm system for easy opening, easy-to-tear register laser scored BOPET film laminates, shrink sleeve labels, PVDC coated laminates, both side register printed laminates and printed laminates with a registered matte effect.

Wraptech Machines – Stand No. G64, Hall 8b

Wraptech is leading manufacturer of FFS machines. At Interpack, they will be displaying two new machines. The first is their Wraptech Thunder, which is a high-speed continuous motion bagging machine that operates at 120 to 140 bags per minute. The machine on display will be servo motor driven with an auger filling attachment. Other filling options include their 14 or 10 head weigher system or a volumetric cup filler. The machine can produce bags of up to 250 mm. width and 350 mm. height with fill weights going up to 2000 gms. Depending on the bulk density of the product.