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11/08/2016

Revolutionary plastic bottle molding technology: cooperation between KHS and the LiquiForm Group

With immediate effect KHS is to cooperate with the LiquiForm Group by contributing its own patents to the development of innovative molding and filling manufacturing technology, a technique which combines two previously separate processes.

• Dortmund systems supplier signs license agreement
• KHS contributes own expertise to development
• Customers benefit from savings in time, cost and resources

Dortmund, November 8, 2016 – With immediate effect KHS is to cooperate with the LiquiForm Group by contributing its own patents to the development of innovative molding and filling manufacturing technology, a technique which combines two previously separate processes. The two companies have now signed a license agreement to this effect. With their cooperation they hope to achieve a breakthrough for the new LiquiForm™ molding and filling manufacturing technology which in the long term is to supersede the conventional stretch blow molding process. The KHS Group has been doing its own research into this combined technology for many years now and will contribute some of its expertise to the project. “Our partnership will drive the change in paradigm in the beverage industry further,” says Frank Haesendonckx, head of Sales and Technology at KHS Corpoplast. Disruptive LiquiForm™ technology revolutionizes the entire process chain. At the time of writing, beverage producers who wish to fill PET bottles first have to manufacture bottles from preforms in a stretch blow molding process using compressed air. The blown containers are then filled with beverage at a second stage in the proceedings. LiquiForm™ technology permits bottles to be made and filled in one single operation. To this end, the liquid to be bottled is used during filling to shape the receptacle. The new technology is currently at an advanced stage in its development. “The advantages for bottlers are obvious. Not only is the filling stage superfluous with LiquiForm™; resources such as air and electricity are also saved,” states Haesendonckx. Beverage producers also save space as only one machine is needed instead of the standard stretch blow molding/filling block.

KHS speeds up development

The KHS Group, which is heralded as a technological leader in the PET sector, among others, has been researching this topic for years and already registered its own industrial property rights in this field. In part these have been included in the agreement. Together with its partner the company from Dortmund in Germany is thus paving the way for customers to profit from LiquiForm™ technology in the near future. “We want to ready this technology for market with our many years of KHS expertise,” concludes Haesendonckx.

About the KHS Group

The KHS Group is one of the leading manufacturers of filling and packaging systems for the beverage, food and non-food industries. The KHS Group includes the following companies, among others: KHS GmbH, KHS Corpoplast GmbH, KHS Plasmax GmbH and NMP Systems GmbH. KHS GmbH manufactures modern filling and packaging systems at its headquarters in Dortmund, Germany, and in Kleve, Bad Kreuznach and Worms. The KHS Group's PET expertise is pooled at KHS Corpoplast and KHS Plasmax in Hamburg, Germany, where light PET packaging and innovative coating systems are developed and produced. NMP Systems GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of KHS GmbH based in Düsseldorf in Germany, designs and markets new, resource-saving packaging systems for PET bottles. The Group has an international production and service network. In 2015 KHS was awarded the Top 100 seal of approval for exceptional innovative power and outstanding innovative success among German SMEs. In 2015 the KHS Group and its 4,871 employees achieved a turnover of around €1.17 billion within the Salzgitter consolidation. The companies in the KHS Group are 100% subsidiaries of the MDAX-listed Salzgitter AG corporation.