DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY (Dec. 11, 4:10 p.m. EST) — Welex Inc. showed some nifty sheet extrusion equipment at K 2001, but samples of Glad Ware really drew the attention, according to President Frank Nissel.
“It's a great example of polypropylene thermoforming,” Nissel said.
The thermoformed, low-price food containers have not reached Europe.
“Nobody has come over here yet. All my European customers have never seen it,” he said.
Nissel brought along a bag full of Glad Ware to demonstrate a hot thermoforming application using polypropylene sheet — extruded, of course, on a Welex sheet line.
He also presented papers on PP thermoforming at the Specialty Plastics Films conference just before the K show, and at Polypropylene 2001 in September in Zurich, Switzerland.
For thermoforming, PP is cheaper than other resins such as high-impact polystyrene and PET, and it gives similar stiffness, Nissel said.
Thermoforming PP also has some advantages over injection molding PP, because thermoformed containers can use thinner walls and less resin, cutting costs, he said.
For example, a thermoformed yogurt cup weighs 30 percent less than an injection molded cup.
The savings can be 50 percent for a 1-liter tub and 67 percent for a lid.