Haitian officials believe the JU88000 handed off to Belli SAS from Haitian's headquarters operations in Ningbo, China, in October 2023 sets a record with its clamping force of 88,000 kN and first use of a super-large-diameter 300 millimeter screw.
In other machine feats, in 2023, Milacron built an 8,000-ton press with dual injection units and two 260 mm screws for a U.S. customer. Yizumi delivered an 8,500-ton press with dual injection units and two 270 mm screws to a Chinese customer.
In 2022, Engel delivered an 8,000-ton press with dual injection units and two 260 mm screws to the U.S. market.
Some machine builders point further back to the 1990s, when a 9,000-ton Battenfeld press was installed at a container plant of Cascade Engineering Inc.
"One thing about the Cascade machine that is unique is it's basically two 4,500-ton presses next to each other. They can run independently (with individual molds) or in parallel (to run as one large machine) with two large injection units," Dave Sharp, Wittmann USA's injection molding machine division manager, said in an email.
In a similar setup, Paris-based Plastic Omnium SA had two 5,500-ton presses linked in tandem.
Plastics News' story archive also shows an 8,800 MIR injection press was installed at Contenur SA in Spain to mold containers for municipal solid waste and industrial storage products.
Also, Bemis Manufacturing Co. in Wisconsin coinjection molds 8-foot hoods for John Deere tractors on a 6,600-ton Milacron press.
Infiltrator Systems Inc. designed and built an injection press with 6,000 tons of clamping force to mold septic tank halves measuring 15 feet long from 245 pounds of polypropylene.