Mold maker z-Werkzeugbau GmbH is exhibiting at Fakuma to spread the word about z-Slide technology.
At the recent Drinktec show in Munich, the Dornbirn, Austria-based company had molds in operation in cap molding demonstrations at three injection press suppliers: Arburg, SHI-Demag and Netstal.
Z-slide is used for production of more precise bands in tamper-evident closures, achieving this with movement actuated by the ejector moving in the machine direction. Parts are demolded in four directions. Cooling is faster than in conventional molds, with 30 to 40 percent less mold cooling water use, resulting in faster cycle time and more cost-effective molding than when demolding in two directions.
Mold wear is reduced due to the absence of moving plates and stacks not having slide units so that molds can contain more cavities, the company said.
Despite greater complexity, z-Slide molds do not require an electronic control system and weigh 20 percent less than conventional molds while enabling greater part design freedom. Designed as a modular system with interchangeable stacks, they only need 15 minutes to demount and remount cavity inserts, as opposed to 15 hours, the company claims. Key account and project manager Stefan Dünser said this is because "only four screws need to be unscrewed and screwed."
Energy consumption is around 20 percent lower, as injection molding machines with lower clamping force can be used for the particularly compact and low weight molds, also as the slides do not require mechanical force for their operation.
Other mold solutions from the company are its z-Cube horizontally rotating stack molds.
Examples of closures produced on z-Werkzeugbau tools at Drinktec included the XO resealable beverage can end, designed and first produced in 2014 by XOlution GmbH in Munich. The key element in XO resealable can ends is the plastic closure with an integrated opening and closing strap that slides backward for drinking and forward for closing.
Karlsbad, Germany-based ultrasonic welding equipment producer Herrmann Ultraschalltechnik (Hall A4, Booth 4108) has revealed that Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co. KG assembles the XO can end in Austria with a Hermann ultrasonic system. This connects inside and outside plastic sliders together in a two-stage process that ends with staking the tamper-proof opening.
Z-Werkzeugbau counts Universal Closures Ltd. among its reference customers as a closure molder using z-Slide molds to produce caps for soft drink companies.
Z-Werkzeugbau also is proud of its Easyopen cap with an integrated lever, designed by Capartis AG in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, for Austrian brewery Mohrenbrauerei August Huber. Mohren is first in Austria to fill beer in PET bottles, while the reclosable tamper-proof EasyCap works on both glass and beer bottles.
