Page 10 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

NEWS EXTRA www.packagingnews.com.au September-October 2018
CCA opens new line for world-first closure
Coca-Cola Amatil’s Packaging Services Division has opened a new injection moulding and assembly line at its Eastern creek facility for making a three-part HDPE closure for its Powerade brand. Lindy Hughson reports.
HE launch of the new production line at the Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) Eastern Creek preform and closure plant on 31 August marks a significant step forward in CCA’s sustainable packaging commit- ment, notably its pledge to reducing the volume and variety of plastic content in
its beverage containers.
The new Sylon [Mercury] Sports closure
is an advancement on the original Mercury closure that CCA previously imported for its Powerade sportsdrink. CCA accounted for one third of the global demand for the Mercury closure, according to CEO Alison Watkins in her address to the Packaging Services Division (PSD) business partners and suppliers attending the opening.
Watkins paid tribute to the team at PSD who she said had “found a way to make the closure here and make it better”.
The PSD team, led by operations manag- er David Chalmers, was behind the design, testing and prototyping of this Australian- grown innovation. It’s the first closure of its kind to receive approval from The Coca- Cola Company and also the only one in which all three parts – the base, slider and overcap – are made of the same material, high density polyethylene (HDPE).
Watkins said CCA has made a significant investment in this preform and closure plant to date [$57 million since its opening in 2011] and this new line in particular, but the business case was attractive.
“This is an Australian manufacturing success story,” she said.
“Not only do we now have reliability of supply, without being subject to the vaga- ries of global exchange rates, we also have a fully recyclable solution that is produced cost effectively.
“Until now, we have imported closures from Europe and faced challenges with global supply. Our Packaging Services Division team at Eastern Creek took initiative and de- signed a closure which is more cost-effective, better for the environment, and will be made in Western Sydney.
“Our team said they could develop a reli- able closure without compromising our commitment to sustainability – and did.”
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HUSKY STRENGTHENS SUPPLY PARTNERSHIP
HUSKY supplied key components for the Powerade closure project, including one HyCAP4 400 machine, one HyCAP4 300 machine and four hot runners. In addition to supplying machines and tooling, Husky has been instrumental in a variety of aspects of the project, including factory planning and layouts, a custom hot runner machine interface allowing use of the current moulds on site, increasing the Altanium controller heating zones to accommodate larger cavitation hot runners and moulds, and a
custom chilled water system to integrate into the current plant chiller equipment. With Husky’s Shotscope software, the company was able to integrate process and production monitoring into the CCA plant’s ERP operating system, ensuring downstream equipment was also covered by Shotscope.
Husky also provided special air and hydraulic machine functions required to activate specific mould features, as well as items required to integrate the machine and hot runner with up and downstream suppliers.