Asia CanTech Day three

Atit Bhatia, of Hindustan Tin Works and Petainer Innopac, opened the final day with his keynote presentation.

Atit covered the government’s Make in India campaign, a programme to promote business and industry in India, and how HTW is developing its business in the country. He spoke of the company’s joint venture with Rexam, which saw the start of an increase in two-piece can manufacture in India from 50m to 1.2bn cans per year over a seven-year period.

He explained his move into PET as well as metal packaging by saying: “I would rather have the customer with me than with a competitor if they are looking for alternative packaging options. This is why we are diversifying the business.”

Mark Hoche, head of sales at CMB Engineering, followed Atit with a presentation on the company’s growth over the past few years. CMB has extended its capacity by some 9,000 square metres at its Shipley site in the UK and continues to extend its reach around the world.

Mark spoke mainly of CMB’s new 3200 REFORMAT Spray Machine, which enables quick changeovers, ease of use for operators and low cost of ownership. The mechanical cambox was replaced with a servomotor, which allows operators to control the machines’ speed more easily, reducing the need to stop individual machines on the line.

Intralox followed with a presentation on how flexibility and low energy will lead to the can lines of the future, and then Mark Mohn from Prime Controls gave a history of can making and how technology has developed to solve the various problems encountered along the way – particularly for issues such as leak and double end detection.

George Bartosh, of Intech, followed with a look at the history of his company and that of the can making industry. Intech has a long history of innovation and the presentation was well received by the delegation.

NPB were next up with a look at can line automation, followed by Marcel Schoumacker and Benny Liu of Schuler. They looked at the history of Schuler within the metal forming industry and how the company’s products could help can makers to innovate.

Can makers in the Asia region can be seen in some areas to be relying on the old fashioned. Equipment can be older and not up to the minute, but this doesn’t mean the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) can’t be measured to optimise performance. Paul Barber of Lighthouse Systems was next up to explain how.

AVT looked at advanced inspection solutions, before Harry van Tuyn, CEO of Rosario, finished the presentation schedule with his presentation on the importance of print quality in the can making industry, which was followed by a final table top exhibition session.

The conference was a huge success, and the organisers would like to thank our distinguished speakers, exhibitors and delegates for making it an informative, useful and productive three days in Thailand. We look forward to seeing you all next year.