Alpha Packaging is investing more than $3.5 million in new machines, molds and downstream equipment for Phase I of its new HDPE cell, and is prepared to double or triple that investment in 2014.

The supplier has a new HDPE Pharma line, and qualified six new injection blow molded high density polyethylene (HDPE) packers. Once completed this fall it will onsist of more than a dozen injection blow molded and extrusion blow molded bottles that replicate the HDPE round bottles most prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry.

The new line is also ideal for Alpha’s core customer base of nutritional supplement manufacturers and fillers – many of which are located on the East Coast near Alpha’s Bethlehem, Penn., manufacturing site.

In addition to the new line of HDPE packers, the high-cavity, large output extrusion platform will allow Alpha to capture custom packaging projects for personal care — as well as household chemicals and automotive products.

The supplier is also investing in brand-new IBM and EBM machines, as well as new molds for more than a dozen bottle sizes, ranging from 50cc to 950cc. Bottle sizes up to 300cc will be injection blow molded on its brand new equipment. Larger sizes will be manufactured using an extrusion blow molded process on new equipment with brand new blow molds. Production lines will also feature state-of-the art vision systems and leak detectors.

Brian McCarthy, Vice President of Sales and New Business Development, comments:

“We will have at least 14 sizes of Pharma Line bottles by the end of 2013 at our East Coast facility, as well as other popular HDPE rounds, oblongs and squares…but the nutrition and pharma industries will not be our only targets. This new EBM platform in particular will make us very competitive in East Coast personal care as well, and complement our existing capabilities.”

Alpha’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Kellar, says Alpha is one of the few North American companies in the packaging industry that is reinvesting in new equipment and capacity.

Keller explains, “By adding this new capability on the East Coast, Alpha is filling a gap in the market that other companies have not managed to fill.”