Technology for environmentally conscious preform producers
An ever-increasing number of preform producers are relying on recycled material in the manufacture of their products. However, the use of recycled material also increases the probability of unforeseeable errors such as contamination or color deviations. Happy who has a PreMon for constant monitoring in his line. Now the Preform Monitoring System has been awarded an iF Design Award for its design.
The first special feature is an optionally available ejector, which performs two essential tasks. On the one hand, it serves to remove faulty preforms from the running product stream. These random samples help an experienced machine operator to better evaluate the current production. On the other hand, the ejector actively reduces the proportion of faulty preforms in the pack. Ideally, the PreMon lowers this percentage below a critical limit and further processing of the container without rework is possible.
A second special feature is the newly developed octabin statistic. This provides information on the inspection rate and the type and proportion of defective preforms per packaging unit. On the basis of this information, each producer can decide for himself and faster than before how to proceed with an octabin: Sorting and recycling, bulky storage and re-sorting or marking as “good” and moving it to production or shipping. With the help of the octabin statistics, all decisions made become more verifiable and objective.
The developer of the PreMon, Michael Rick, summarises the advantages for a preform producer as follows: “This system supports the operator on the basis of data and sorted out samples on the one hand to keep the production process stable even when using recycled material. And on the other hand, it helps the operator to make the most economical decision on the further processing of an octabin.”
