Major advances in blow molding, including Aoki's injection stretch blow molding of high density polyethylene and all-electric machines from Battenfeld, await visitors to K'95. A trend to more flexible machines also will continue. Several companies tout machines that can blow mold several different resins and types of bottles. Quick mold change and new, faster PET preform injection molding technology also will be shown.
Aoki will be molding amorphous PET and polyethylene naphthalate.
Here's a preview of blow molding innovations at the K show:
Sister companies Krupp Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH and Krupp Corpoplast Maschinenbau GmbH will exhibit together (Hall 12, Stand A13).
Krupp Corpoplast will show a new 96-cavity mold to make PET preforms on an injection press with a clamping force of 78 tons. With that mold, running a 19-second cycle, the machine makes 18,200 preforms an hour to make 1.5-liter bottles. Krupp's previous high was 72 cavities.
The company has boosted cycle times on its 48-cavity preform molds to 16 seconds because of advances in cooling.
Krupp Corpoplast also will introduce a new generation of stretch blow molding machines that can make 2,000-30,000 PET bottles an hour.
The modular-design machines are flexible, allowing the processor to boost heating capacity to accommodate heavy PET preforms for refillable or hot-filled bottles. Another feature is quick mold change.
Krupp Kautex will unveil the KBS 1-30/1000, a new machine in its KSB 1 series of extrusion blow molding machines. The machine can make bottles with three different neck shapes: bung, cap and crimp-type closures.
The new KEB 5/430 extrusion blow molder makes packaging containers as large as 10 liters. Travel stroke has been increased without making the machine bigger because of a shuttle moving the clamp between the extrusion die head and blowing station.
The company also will showthe KSB 2-61 machine, designed to mold automotive engine parts such as air inlet pipes and intake manifolds, molding a three-dimensional part from a thermoplastic elastomer.
Krupp Kautex will introduce its first injection stretch blow molding machine.
R. Stahl Blasformtechnik GmbH (Hall 12, Stand A35), the manufacturers of Hesta blow molding machines, will show two models.
A new 1-liter, single-station machine, the HK 453, has a very open design that enables parts removal by a chute, transport rails or a conveyor belt.
The single-station Hesta HLL 803 has a long strike design and patented double-station masks mounted directly on the mold.
Automa SpA (Hall 12, Stand A47) will show two twin-station blow molders from its Plus Series. The AT5D will have an extruder that can process up to 440 pounds per hour of HDPE.
The Italian machinery supplier also will discuss a PET injection stretch blow molding machine that will be available at the end of 1995.
The Plus machines can mold containers as large as 6 liters. In 1996, Automa will offer Plus machines able to mold containers as large as 10 liters on a single-cavity mold and 5 liters on a multi-cavity mold.
Aoki Technical Laboratory Inc. (Hall 12, Stand D24), a maker of injection stretch blow molding equipment, will run five machines molding PE, amorphous PET and PEN - including injection stretch blow molding of HDPE containers.
PE bottles typically are made by extrusion blow molding. Aoki said it has worked for 20 years to develop injection stretch blow molding of the material, which eliminates the need for trimming flash. Also, stretching the preform improves mechanical properties. Aoki has modified the mold used to make the preform, so that high-temperature preforms result. At K, Aoki will mold PE cosmetic bottles on a SBIII-150P-20 machine, in a 12-cavity mold every 12 seconds.
In amorphous PET, the Japanese company will mold mineral water bottles on a 100LL-20 machine. The machine vents moisture and unreacted monomer from APET. That
resin is cheaper than crystalline PET, but has been hard to mold by
injection stretch blow molding because the pellets stick together
upon drying, forming a mass of material. Aoki developed a drying apparatus on the injection cylinder that melts the resin to fill the mold. Another machine will mold wide-mouth containers from PEN, a potential replacement for PET. Aoki opened a Dusseldorf subsidiary on June 1.
An all-electric blow molding machine will highlight the exhibit of Battenfeld Fischer Blasformtechnik GmbH (Hall 14, Stand F19).
Movements of the Tahara machine, with a mold clamping force of 7 tons, are more precise and repeatable than a hydraulic machine, according to Battenfeld Fischer. Electric machines are quieter, they do not use oil and servo-electric drives reduce energy requirements by 30 percent, the company says.
Battenfeld Fischer also will demonstrate an improvement to the company's three-dimensional blow molded parts.
Typically, these parts are long, rigid tubes with complex
geometrical shapes. Battenfeld Fischer has added a new die head that allows the combination of completely different substrates, such as glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene and thermoplastic elastomers. That means the machine can blow mold a ``hard-soft-hard'' article
with a flexible, pleated element such as a bellows.
show a new low-cost blow molding machine, the
PAC-1, manufactured at the firm's Brazilian subsidiary, Battenfeld Pugliese. The machine molds containers as large as 5 liters in capacity. At K, a smaller, single-station machine will be operating.
Battenfeld also will
K show visitors will be shuttled to the Battenfeld Fischer plant in Troisdorf, Germany, to see 3-D suction blow molding; blow molding of fuel tanks with capacity of 1,500-2,000 liters and bulk containers with volumes from 840-1,200 liters; and a machine with double accumulator heads, new to the European market.
omar Corp. (Ha
