French mould manufacturer Plastisud (Castelnaudary; www.plastisud.com) has entered into a joint venture with injection moulding machine producer Engel Austria (Schwertberg; www.engelglobal.com) to provide turnkey solutions for the production of sealing caps for water and soft drinks containers in China.

Operating under the name of “Green Cap” the two companies will unveil their new concept at the Chinaplas 2012 trade fair, which runs from 18 to 21 April in Shanghai – see Plasteurope.com of 12.03.2012. An all-electric Engel e-cap 3440/420 injection moulding machine with a 96-cavity mould made by Plastisud, producing almost 130,000 sealing caps hourly and reaching a cycle time under 2.8 seconds, will be demonstrated at the fair. The companies said “Green Cap” solutions offer energy consumption of just 0.75 kWh/kg of granules. They can be supplied with 32 to 96 cavity moulds as standard along with a machine clamping force of 200 t to 500 t.

Jean-Luc Giraud, CEO of Plastisud, said: “By bringing two family-owned market leaders together, we want to amalgamate a unique wealth of experience in plastic closure moulds and highly efficient injection moulding machines to provide the Chinese market with a simple but very efficient plastic cap solution.”

“Green Cap” has established a base in Shanghai in the premises of Engel. Plastisud opened a new sales office in Shanghai 18 months ago and Engel has a production plant in Shanghai as well as three sales and service offices. “We are well connected to our customer base in China, and doubling our production area at Engel Machinery Shanghai demonstrates our commitment to the region,” says Gero Willmeroth, president of sales and service for Engel in Shanghai.