Oben Holding Group is one of the largest manufacturers of flexible films and packaging in the world, with operations in 18 countries across the Americas and Europe.
The first manufacturing plant has been opened over 30 years ago in Quito, Ecuador, and the company has diversified its product portfolio to more than 400 products in three main fields of business: films for the flexible packaging industry, thermoformed packaging and engineering resins. The Oben Holding Group has a total manufacturing capacity of 800,000 metric tons and works with 2,500 employees.
Food grade rPET sheet
Sustainability and food safety are firmly anchored in the identity of the Oben Group companies, so the production of sheet from recycled materials has been a natural next step in diversification. The newly founded company Biopak S.A. is located in Ecuador and has started its production in 2023, running a viscoSHEET extrusion line with a deCON iV+ decontamination unit upfront.
The company‘s Management shared what led to the decision to go into rPET sheet production: “We see a growing awareness of sustainable packaging in Latin America. Each of us has a responsibility and as a packaging manufacturer we now want to offer our own solutions made from recycled PET. By producing the sheet in-house, we ourselves have control over the high quality and can process both post-consumer and post-industrial material. During the treatment in the deCON iV+ we decontaminate and recover the levels of intrinsic viscosity that are needed for rPET sheet for food packaging production.”
End-to-end automation
The fact that Starlinger viscotec has more than a decade of experience in rPET sheet extrusion technology is a big plus for Biopak, as the line was specifically designed to meet the company’s requirements. Thanks to end-to-end automation, the line can be operated with low manpower involvement, at high safety standards and high output.
