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| Piovan, Una-Dyn to supply PET systems to US |
By Bill Bregar | PLASTICS NEWS STAFF Posted April 23, 2010 Italy-based Piovan SpA has created Piovan PET Systems US to supply complete systems of auxiliary equipment to North American makers of PET preforms and other products -- working with Universal Dynamics Inc. John Heinrikson heads up Piovan PET Systems US. Heinrikson joined the company in January. He has more than 15 years of experience in sales and plastics application engineering, including sales management positions at auxiliary suppliers Novatec Inc., ACS Group and Motan Inc. Piovan bought Woodbridge, Va.-based Universal Dynamics in 2008. The acquisition was the final step in the strategy to manufacture equipment on every continent by Piovan, a broad-line auxiliary supplier based in Santa Maria di Sala, Italy. Now the creation of Piovan PET Systems US targets a major market for both companies. “The PET business, and packaging, is one industry sector that has been growing and will be growing in the future. We’re seeing increased business opportunities,” said Giorgio Santella, Piovan’s marketing director for global activities. Piovan will provide machinery such as resin dryers, chillers and mold dryers. Una-Dyn President Bill Goldfarb said the U.S. operation will supply related equipment and products, including mezzanine structures to support the auxiliary equipment, resin silos, rail-car unloading systems and blending and feeding equipment. Una-Dyn also is handling service and parts for Piovan PET Systems US from Woodbridge. Una-Dyn’s Integrated Systems Group can help with plant layout and design. “[Piovan’s] machine-related products, coupled with our systems expertise, will bring to the customers exactly what they need: a full systems supplier for PET processing,” Goldfarb said. “In so doing, we can bring to the customer the best products, the best service, the best support by working together with our organizations and support system.” Piovan PET Systems US is part of a broader reorganization within Piovan’s global PET business structure. All activities are coordinated through Piovan headquarters, from three regions focused in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Heinrikson, Piovan’s PET systems business manager, will oversee all activities in the United States and Canada. He will work with Fabio Seabra, who leads the Americas, including Central and South America. Piovan already is a major PET-equipment force in North America. Piovan opened an office in Mississauga, Ontario, in 1993 to supply PET dryers to preform molders using Husky injection presses. Santella said the office in Canada remains open, and serves customers that use any brand of injection machine. Santella said Piovan has sold 500 PET equipment systems in the United States and Canada, and 800 for all of the Americas. Piovan’s PET-related products are not limited to auxiliaries for injection molding PET preforms. Santella said the company’s equipment also is used by thermoforming sheet, film and other PET products. Una-Dyn also brings some dedicated products for bioplastics, including a line of crystallizers and dryers specially designed for polylactic acid — technology that is available under Piovan PET Systems US. Both Piovan and Una-Dyn develop new technology. Since January, Piovan has been shipping its new Genesys PET dryer, billed as a self-adjusting system that delivers very low energy consumption. Genesys has an automatic airflow control and adjustment to cut energy use by 35-55 percent below today’s conventional resin dryers, according to the company. “It self-adjusts depending on the throughput and the variations of the output of the machine, and the environmental conditions,” Santella said, such as temperature, relative humidity and dew point. “We have turned all these variables into process parameters and we can monitor them and control them.” The new dryer keeps the dew point constant. Genesys also recovers almost the entire amount of energy used in the step of regeneration of the desiccant material. Santella said energy consumption is a major issue for PET processors, including drying and water chilling. Piovan’s new Pet Chiller is a compact, energy efficient system dedicated to preform molding. PET Chiller cuts energy use by 40 percent, compared with traditional chillers, according to the company. Source: Plastics News |
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