Teknor Color Strengthens Role as Full-Service Supplier to Bottle Producers with Startup of Blow Molding Pilot Plant

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NEW YORK, September 28, 2004: Teknor Color Company has started up a product-development pilot plant to support manufacturers of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), and polyester (PET) bottles of all types used in consumer packaging, the company announced today at HBA 2004 (Booth 1377). The startup adds to Teknor Color’s already extensive capabilities for providing multi-plant bottle manufacturers with the advantages of “single-sourcing” their supplies of color concentrates.

Key production equipment in the new pilot plant includes: 1) an extrusion blow molding system with capacity for small-scale commercial quantities of one-, two-, and three-layer PP and PE bottles; 2) an 80-ton injection molding press for injection-blow preforms; and 3) tooling for PET preforms for both beverage and cosmetic / personal care bottles.

Startup of the pilot plant coincides with Teknor Color’s commercial introduction of PETek (TM) concentrates for PET, based on unique technology that the company says enhances the shelf appeal of bottles and increases productivity for manufacturers. While Teknor Color has long supplied colorants for polyolefin (PP and PE) bottles, including many special-effect formulations, the new concentrates are its first for PET.

“Teknor Color Company now provides a complete range of products and services for bottle manufacturers and consumer-product packagers,” said Louis R. Cappucci, vice president of Teknor Apex and business manager of Teknor Color. “We are fully prepared to cooperate in the development of new bottles based on any of the major resins, and we provide an attractive alternative for manufacturers of existing packages because of our pilot-plant capabilities for duplicating and precisely color-matching any bottle on the market.”

Sample bottles produced in the new pilot plant help customers maintain strict control over their brand identities, according to Meritt M. Siers-Foster, color technologist and manager of Teknor Color’s pilot laboratory. “The more diversified the product line, the greater the challenge in maintaining absolute color uniformity from one package to the next,” Siers-Foster said. “A national-brand program may involve both single-layer and multi-layer bottles, call for bottles based on both polyolefin and PET resins, and include other types of packaging requiring us to supply matching colors in resins such as polycarbonate or polystyrene. This is why it is vitally important for designers to see colors as they appear in real bottles, not just color chips.”

Coordinated Color Matching Program Serves Multi-Plant Customers

Also benefiting customers with large brand-name product lines or nationwide manufacturing operations are Teknor Color Company’s OEM and National Accounts Programs, noted business manager Cappucci. “For packagers that outsource bottle production to multiple molders, or for bottle manufacturers with multiple locations, Teknor Color provides a single central resource for color matching in all of the materials used for their product lines,” Cappucci said.

While the new pilot plant is located at Teknor Color Company’s Pawtucket, RI, headquarters, the company operates a fully equipped color laboratory at each of its five U.S. production facilities. “The laboratories are linked to a central database to assure consistency from one location to the next,” noted Cappucci.