Now in its
seventh year, the 2009 Horner’s Bottlemaking Award, sponsored by Polymer
Machinery Trade Association PMMDA, has been launched. Entries are being
encouraged from UK designers and manufacturers of bottles, jars, or hollow
containers with closure (where applicable)and can be made by any process
including extrusion blow, injection blow, injection stretch blow, injection
moulding, rotational moulding and vacuum forming.
The product
should be pre-market or new to market (within the last 12 months) and display
innovation and practical design features.
The 2009 Award
will be presented by the Lord Mayor of London at the Worshipful Company of
Horner’s Annual Banquet being held at the Mansion House, London in October.
For more
details on how to enter please contact:
Nikki Williams
Polymer Machinery Manufacturers & Distributors Association
P.O. Box 2539
RUGBY
CV23 9YF
T: 0870 2411474 F: 05602 094484 E:
nikki@pmmda.org.uk
W:
www.pmmda.org.uk
All entrants will be asked to simply send a photograph and a sample of the
entry with the completed application form.
THE COMPOSITE GAS BOTTLE WINS
2007 HORNERS BOTTLEMAKING AWARD
The 2007 Horners’
Bottlemaking Award was awarded to Ragasco AS for the BP Gas Light,
the lightweight composite gas cylinder.
Developed and manufactured by Ragasco in Norway
and sold in the UK through BP, this unique lightweight composite gas cylinder
was a clear winner with the judges. The innovative use of multiple materials to
replace the traditional steel bottles was regarded a great achievement and it
was agreed that this development extends the scope of blow moulding into a new
area of application. The pleasing design and enhanced user-friendly features
such as reduced weight, easy to see gas level, non-corrosive and non-explosive
all added to it being selected as the 2007 winner.
The bottle itself is made from filament-wound
glass fibre GRP composite
with a blow moulded HDPE inner liner designed to withhold the pressure of the
gas it contains. The outer casing is a
two part plastic moulding, making it 100% non-corrosive and weighing 50% less
than steel bottles containing the same gas volume. The easy grip handles
combined with its reduced weight makes is more manageable for distributors,
filling operators, deliverymen and users. The manufacturer also state that when
attacked by fire, it will react with a controlled burnout instead of an
explosion, making is much safer to transport, distribute and use.
On winning this award Hans Henrik Larsen,
Sales Director at Ragasco commented: “We at Ragasco AS are both proud and
honoured to have received this award. We are at the same time sincerely
delighted that a global and leading company like BP has recognized the unique
qualities of our product, and consider the BP Gas Light to be the perfect choice
of gas cylinders and ideal for their customers”.
Craig Stoddart, BP’s
Marketing Development Manager added: "We are delighted the BP Gas
Light has won this award and it is great recognition of
the close, strategic partnership we have with Ragasco. In BP Gas Light, we have
brought unrivalled innovation to the gas bottle industry and we are able to
exceed our customer’s expectations and give them the features and benefits they
have been demanding for many years”.
The judging of the Award took place at the
British Plastics Federation Offices in London and the judging panel consisted of
the Master of the Worshipful Company of Horners, David Oxley; Court Assistants
David Williams and Don Cooper, Graham Porcas of Proma Machinery, Mike Boswell of
Plastribution, Sarah Plant from BPF and John Bunker formerly of Plysu and
Blowmocan.
The Award was presented by the Lord Mayor
of London at the Worshipful Company of Horner’s Annual Banquet held at the
Mansion House, London on 4th October 2007.
‘The Worshipful Company of Horners’ absorbed the ‘Bottlemakers Company’
in 1467 – at that time bottles were made in leather. After World War 2 many
applications for natural horn such as cutlery handles, combs and brushes etc
were being made from plastics. The Horners therefore decided to adopt the
plastics industry. Since that time the use of plastics to make bottles has grown
steadily into what is today a major
UK
manufacturing industry.
In recognition of the coming together of plastics and bottles, the
Horners and Bottlemakers Company initiated a new and exciting award,
announced in 2002.
2007 Sponsors
2006 Winner
DR.FROHN, BP-MONTY and Werit UK
In its fourth year, the
2006 Horners’ Bottle making Award was awarded to the DR. FROHN designed BP
20 litre ‘Monty’ plastic canister.
Developed by DR.ING.W.FROHN
GMBH & CO KG in partnership with BP and manufactured by Werit UK Limited, based
in Manchester, the Monty pack is a lightweight, stackable, plastic retail
container which allows automated high speed filling with a unique patented
“ECOVENT” anti-glug discharge feature now introduced throughout Europe by BP Castrol.
Moulded in HDPE and
manufactured on a specially equipped blow moulding machine, the ingeniously
designed Ecovent Discharge System vents through a channel running beneath and
through the handle. This minimises potentially dangerous splashing of contents,
drastically reduces emptying time, and improves pouring accuracy.
Significantly the ECOVENT
Canister with its anti-glug discharge feature can be used for an extensive range
of corrosive and hazardous liquids due to its robust yet light design which has
achieved full UN Approval.
The Bottlemaking Award aims to
highlight the achievements of bottle manufacturers who are traditionally out of
the spotlight and DR. FROHN, in partnership with WERIT, has introduced the
Ecovent System into the UK Industrial Packaging Market. WERIT UK Head of
Operations John Duffy is confident that the UK market will be keen to take
advantage of the safety and efficiency features offered by this innovation.
On winning the award Dr. Eric Frohn commented: “We at Frohn GmbH are very
pleased that a major international company such as BP has recognised the
opportunities offered by our product and are proud and honoured to receive this
Horners Award”. BP Castrol’s Mr. John Bates also added “I
consider this to be a fantastic achievement and would like to take the
opportunity to thank all concerned in the Monty Project for their help, support
and advice”.
The judging of the Award took
place at the British Plastics Federation Offices in London and the judging panel
was made up of the Master of the Worshipful Company of Horners, Ray Anstis;
Court Assistants Don Cooper, Alan Griffiths and David Williams former President
of the BPF; Alison Vincent of AVA Packaging Consultant; Darren Round, General
Manger of Husky Injection Moulding Systems; Karen Hately of the Society of
Plastic Engineers and Andy Beevers, Publishing Director of Emap Maclaren.
The Award was presented at the
Worshipful Company of Horner’s Annual Banquet held at the Mansion House,
London in October 2006.
