ORLANDO, FLA. (April 2, 8:30 p.m. ET) — Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. (Booth 3763) is not done pushing the envelope of thinner and faster, when it comes to packaging and medical molding.
A Husky official also said the company would break ground on a new plant in China.
At NPE2012, Husky is rolling out the latest generation of its HyCAP beverage closure maker, cranking out a water bottle closure at a 2.2 second cycle using a 96-cavity closure mold made by KWT Group, the Austrian closure mold specialist that Husky bought last year.
Jeff MacDonald, vice president of marketing, said Husky can squeeze out the cycle times because the company makes the molding press, hot runners and—now in closures—the mold.
The press running caps in Orlando represents a 45 percent improvement in productivity over the first HyCAP, at the last NPE in 2009, which ran a 72-cavity system running a similar application on a 2.4 second cycle. It’s a single-faced mold, not a stack mold. MacDonald said Husky said the market is moving away from stack molds for closures. “We’re finding the average cavitation’s coming down a little bit,” he said as Husky’s press conference April 2.
And Husky will go one step further at Chinplas, coming up April 18-24 in Shanghai, debuting the HyCAP HPP (for high performance package), which the company claims will be the world’s fastest closure system.
MacDonald said the press, which is already in China for the show, trims cycle time even more. The goal for Husky engineers was to reduce the mold open and close and make other improvements, to boost productivity and energy efficiency both by 20 percent, he said.
At NPE2012, Husky also is running an all-electric H-MED AE press with UltraSync hot runner technology, Shotscope NX to cut energy use and boost productivity, and an Altanium temperature controller. The H-MED is molding an IV breather cap.
MacDonald said Husky will break ground on a plant in the Shanghai area. He declined to give many details, but said it would do some manufacturing of hot runners and injection presses.
Husky opened its Asian headquarters plant in Shanghai in 2004, and followed up with a hot-runner plant in Shenzhen the following year.
Earlier this year, Husky opened a factory in Chennai, India, to do mold conversion and mold and hotrunner refurbishment for local preform makers.
MacDonald said Husky typically has expanded globally to supply major beverage bottlers.
In other news, MacDonald said Husky is coming out with its HyPEt HPP, after launching the HyPET AE at the 2010 K show in Germany. Husky has sold about 30 HyPET AE machines, he said.
He dubbed the news model the HyPET 4.0 – using Silicon Valley terminology, since Husky wants to introduce presses with major advancements about every two years. It will enable Husky to reduce PET preforms even more, by using a better mold and hot runner system and improving machinery performance.
