Easing material evaluation for brand owners and converters
PTI-Hematek partnership expands PET bottle testing access for South Asian customers
Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI), based in Holland, Ohio, and Hemetek Techno Instruments, Mumbai, India, have announced they are collaborating to expand Hemetek’s capabilities and services to customers throughout the region.
Greg Fisher, PTI’s director of global analytical labs, told FoodProductionDaily the relationship is simply a partnership; it does not involve PTI having a financial stake in Hematek.
“PTI is providing technical support consisting of training in our proprietary methods, specification of equipment and quality assurance systems, and oversight by review of test results and quality audits,” he said.
“Hemetek will be offering PTI-certified package testing, including testing of PET resins, preforms and bottles.”
Specific tests will evaluate solution intrinsic viscosity, acetaldehyde and moisture content, finish dimensions and bottle expansion and burst.
Hematek is expanding its testing facility in Baroda, a city in the Gujarat state of western India. The company plans to host an open house there on January 20, 2015, and will be accepting bottle performance projects thereafter.
The trouble with travel
Fisher said PTI’s expansion into Southeast Asia has been driven by brand owner requests for PTI to establish a local resource to help them determine if their preforms and bottles are meeting performance parameters. Until now, companies were forced to send these components to laboratories in other parts of the world or rely on limited internal capabilities.
“Empty PET bottles do not typically sustain long journeys well, and particularly those that are subjected to temperature extremes typically found in Southeast Asia,” Hemetek president Viraj Devasthale said in a joint statement.
“By partnering with PTI to locate these testing services in closer proximity to bottling plants, we can help reduce both time and cost and provide brand owners with critical data to help them meet their performance requirements.”
In addition to providing technical and business development support, PTI engineers will be working in person with Hemetek at their facility, Fisher told FoodProductionDaily. “PTI’s contacts in India will be seeing more of us as we leverage this laboratory to help raise the quality and performance expectations for packaging in the region.”
Future growth
In terms of market opportunities, Fisher said independent bottlers and bottlers affiliated with major brand owners are located in local population centers throughout all of the countries in Southeast Asia.
“While the main focus [of the partnership] is India, we are working with companies in several other countries in the region, including Viet Nam and Thailand,” he said.
“We expect to draw testing business from customers who might not want to deal with the expense, time delay and potential damage associated with sending samples for testing to our US or Switzerland locations.”
Over the next decade, PTI and Hematek “expect continued significant growth due to recent trends in PET packaging in India,” Fisher said.
“Many brand owners and converters have stated that they will continue to invest the region. Much of the world’s PET supply is located in the region, as well.”
