The US-based moulding and extrusion specialist taps the Middle East’s packaging market with its newest Quantum-Toggle. On the sidelines of Arabplast 2019, Milacron top managers share their thoughts with Packaging MEA editors Benjamin Daniel and Vikram Fotedar
Packaging MEA (PMEA): 25 years in the MEA market, that’s a long time?
Fadi Abdal, VP, sales Middle East & Africa, Milacron (FD): Yes, we have been active that long, serving the market on the machinery side of the business and also on the analytical side. Primarily on the machinery side of the business, we reach out to the market with injection moulding, blow moulding, extrusion and also aftermarket and replacement parts.
PMEA: The two segments you serve are packaging and construction. Also dairy?
FD: Packaging and construction are key to our business, particularly in Saudi Arabia. More recently we have made inroads in the other GCC countries in the dairy industry.
PMEA: What do you do there?
FD: We get involved in the dairy from container design to machinery and provide a complete solution for the dairy industry. This has been a very important segment of the market, and we will continue to be involved and invest in the dairy and packaging industry in the Middle East.
PMEA: Any other markets?
FD: Outside of the dairy, we are involved in the construction, fittings, in the injection molding sides and the pipes in the extrusion. In Africa, we are heavily involved in many countries, which is handled by our India operations as well as Europe. South Africa is an important market. Nigeria is another and also East, Central and West Africa.
Overall we will continue to focus on MEA with Mold-Masters, one of the world’s leading suppliers of hot runner technology and systems. Having Mold-Masters technology in addition to the machinery, we are not only serving the market on the machinery end of it but also on the tools.
PMEA: You have a manufacturing unit in India?
FD: We have a machine manufacturing site in India, from where machines are exported to the European markets with CE approvals, and also to the US market with all the US approvals, so they are truly a global product.
Besides, we have our teams in US, Europe and India, which are designed for global markets.
PMEA: Tell us about the Quantum Toggle line and the latest Endura Touch?
FD: The Quantum Toggle line is basically a new design over our previous NPS product and is based on our German F series design. We have the F series clamp into the Quantum design and the control is a common Milacron control.
The Quantum Toggle line made its debut at the NPE 2018 Orlando, USA. It is designed to deliver higher productivity, reduced cost of ownership, enhanced performance and advanced technical specifications.
Quantum comes equipped with Milacron’s Endura Touch control interface and is available from 125 to 610 tons. The Quantum features Milacron’s new generation toggle machine technology that will provide added benefits of reduced energy consumption, lower cycle time coupled with precision and reliability.
PMEA: And Klear Can technology?
FD: That’s a revolutionary innovation that delivers the benefits of plastic in a striking, proven, durable ‘can design’. Brands can showcase their products such as fruits, vegetables, soups, meats and other products to shoppers with eye-catching clarity.
PMEA: How has the Middle East market shaped up in terms of technology?
FD: In terms of technology it’s been advancing, it has been a very demanding market in terms of technology – marked with quality requirements and machine performance. I don’t see much difference in terms of the technology required in the Middle East to anywhere else in the world. Some of them are more demanding than any other. We see some of the blow-moulding requirement out of the Middle East in terms of output greater than what we see in more mature markets. We improvise on our technology for the Middle East. Africa is a little more different, its more of a general purpose market – a mid-range packaging application use. South Africa (SA) market is a lot mature. We supply high-end technology to the SA market, similar to what we supply to the European market.
PMEA: What is your expectation, how long before there is rationalisation in the African market? Can it come at par with other markets in terms of technology?
FD: I think the growth in the African market is pretty steady and aggressive. I believe in the next three to five years, we will see the same type of demanding technology in the African markets as we see in the rest of the Middle East. For now, it’s a mid-range requirement in terms of output and technology.
That said, our machine design is efficient, minimises on energy consumption, be it the injection, blow moulding or extrusion machines.
We see the IT or the connectivity aspect of the machinery growing in the region as well despite the weakness in the infrastructure. We do see a very strong product line in terms of connectivity.
PMEA: You cater to your customer through your online store?
FD: We have the e-store that allows the customer to go online and enter our machine serial number and they get a list of all the parts that they can buy online.
In some of the remote countries here in the Middle East or Africa, it gives them access to services to quickly do online rather than relying on calling someone and getting it done. We are able to support our customers with connectivity and new products, Internet-based products. We are extending the capability of Milacron while we are making it easier for our customers and maintain a good track record of our services.
Milacron is very unique in a way that it supplies you a wide range of equipment and technology for the entire plastic industry. Hence, we have invested quite a bit on training for maintenance and also for process management.
Jagdish Bhandari,
International sales manager, Milacron India, said, “The Quantum series is designed to deliver higher productivity, reduced cost of ownership, enhanced performance and advanced technical specifications. Equipped with Milacron’s Endura Touch control interface, the Quantum Series is available from 110 to 650-ton range. It also features a new generation toggle machine technology that provides reduced energy consumption and lower cycle time.
“We selected the Quantum machine for this market because we feel, the packaging is one of the booming industries here in the GCC. We decided to bring in the Quantum-180, which runs with a 3-litre thin wall container for applications of ice cream, yoghurt, Laban and cookies. The machine was displayed with the IML system, and the complete project works within 8.5 seconds. “We see a good future for this machine in this part of the world”, explained Jagdish.
Milacron’s Indian facility can produce 2000 machines in the existing plant, exporting machines to their parent companies in the US and Germany as well. “With the demand growing both domestically and internationally, we are now planning to enhance our production up to 5000 machines per year”, comments Jagdish.
Milacron’s Quantum 180 is outfitted with Mold-Masters E-Multi secondary injection unit, TempMaster M1 controller and a rotary indexing unit. The E-Multi easily and economically converts any existing Injection Molding Machine to allow multi-shot capabilities.
Speaking on the technology and performance of the E-Multi,
Kannan Venkataraman, managing director of Mold- Masters, India said, “Over the last 10 years the technical team has learnt a lot and has been able to standardise to global engineering standards and requirements. So when you buy any product from any division of Mold-Masters, the standard, design and performance are maintained”. Mold-Masters was acquired by Milacron India in 2013. We design, manufacture, and support a full range of hot runner products, including hot runner systems, temperature controllers, hot halves, and gating technologies. We are always looking to deliver the ultimate in melt delivery and control systems” said Venkataraman.