US-based Plastic Technologies (PTI, Holland, Ohio; www.plastictechnologies.com) has recently signed a representation agreement with Japan’s Toyo Seikan Group (Shinagawa; www.toyo-seikan.co.jp/e/), a packaging container manufacturing company, for the US market. The deal makes PTI an exclusive agent of several new PET bottling process technologies for packaging solutions. One of the areas the two entities plan to cooperate on involves a new foamed PET bottle technology that produces lightweight containers with good barrier attributes and striking visual/tactile attributes, the US company said. PTI and Toyo Seikan plan to announce further details about the new technology – along with its potential impact on beverage packaging in the US – in the coming months.

“Due to our compatible areas of interest and ongoing working relationship, it was logical to take the relationship to a more formal level. PTI’s extensive PET expertise and long-standing client relationships will be a big asset in helping us commercialise our proven technologies in the US marketplace,” explained Toshio Sue, deputy head of technical headquarters at Toyo Seikan.

Based in a special ward of Tokyo, Toyo Seikan counts more than 4,000 employees working in 14 manufacturing sites across Japan in addition to production facilities in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. The company has a single site in the US in Centennial, Colorado.

With 120 employees worldwide including its PTI-Europe base in Yverdon-les-bains / Switzerland, PTI is known for its reheat stretch blow moulding process. The company has also done development projects with biopolymers such as PLA, nanotechnology for material additives, flexible packaging and pouches, sustainable packaging initiatives, and instrument development with new sensors.