DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY (Dec. 6, 12:25 p.m. EST) — Sacmi Imola S.C., known for its compression molding machines to make bottle caps, is taking the technology into PET preforms.
At K 2007 in Dusseldorf, Sacmi introduced its preform advanced molding by showing a prototype. The rotary machine performs what Sacmi calls continuous blow forming.
Equipped with a 48-cavity mold, the machine can run 27,000 preforms an hour. The machine is located at Sacmi's research and development center in Imola, Italy.
Sacmi displayed the PET molds at K, with 48 and 72 cavities, plus an electronic vision inspection system. The company makes molds with up to 86 cavities. Sacmi is targeting the beverage market and niches such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
According to the firm, compression molding gives a continuous and properly oriented exit of preforms for in-line quality control and blow molding. Other advantages include energy savings, thanks to a lower PET melting temperature. The preforms also require less heating in the blowing phase, because the molding process yields a different orientation of the crystals of the PET, Sacmi said.
The company claims that a PET bottle coming from a compression molded preform has better homogeneity of material distribution, compared with standard, injection molded preforms. Also, there is no gate vestige.
At K, which ran Oct. 24-31, Sacmi also displayed a press in its core business of bottle caps — the new CCM64M. The press, which can crank out about 100,000 caps an hour, is arranged in a work cell that molds the caps, then packages them into boxes.
