Kortec Inc. brought injection molding technology to K 2010 that might give food-can makers something to worry about.
Ipswich, Mass.-based Kortec supplies complete systems for making multilayer food containers and closures; until now, most of its business has focused on making bottle preforms for products like ketchup and juice.
But Russell Bennett, vice president of sales and marketing, said Kortec's technology to make thin-wall multilayer, shelf-stable food containers offers advantages that metal cans can't match.
“With injection molding, first of all, you have clarity,” Bennett said at K, held Oct. 27 to Nov. 3 in Dusseldorf. “Kortec's technology also fits very well with in-mold labeling, which you can't do with metal.
I think the timing is right for plastics to step in and play in that segment. We feel that brand owners are really saying they want to go there.”
The move into thin-wall polypropylene food containers has resulted in a shift in Kortec's manufacturing technology, he said.
The company's focus on PET preforms led it to use mainly Husky presses in its systems. But now that Kortec is supplying molders of PP containers, it is working with other injection press suppliers, Bennett said.