Sipa debuts preform mould with 200 cavities
Not long ago, Sipa broke through a barrier of multi-cavity PET preform production with the first mould in the world to hold 180 cavities. The mould was the same size as one with 144 cavities, but advanced hot runner technology allowed to insert an extra 36 cavities – almost 25% more. Now the Italian company has gone and broken its own record.
It is just what major packaging companies are after: producing more preforms with a single system, cutting consumption of utilities, being more efficient in the use of labour, and to tie up less valuable floor space. Sipa has made a mould containing 200 cavities for preforms with necks up to 28 mm, typical for mineral water and beverage bottles. The mould still has the same external dimensions, so it can be mounted on an XForm 500 GEN4 injection moulding machine. The 200-cavity mould facilitates the production of over 140,000 preforms every hour. This is making the investment in an XForm 500 production system more cost-effective than ever, says Sipa. Companies can also maximise the potential for packaging line integration: one preform production system with a 200-cavity mould could be used to provide input for two bottle production and filling lines running at 81,000 bph.
More output without stressing the equipment
Sipa engineered the 200-cavity mould using the principles that applied to the 180-cavity mould, developing a solution that their customers could rely on. Sipa‘s Preform Tooling Manager comments: “We have the ability to create extremely well-balanced hot runner systems that are virtually unconfined by limits on geometry. Sipa’s Gen4 hot runner design concept provides best-in-class balance, long maintenance intervals, and excellent ease of access when intervention is finally required.”
He continues, “By increasing output on a 500 t machine without making it run faster – rather than running a mould with fewer cavities and shorter cycle times to achieve similar output, but putting extra stress on the machine – we can help the processor prolong equipment lifetimes.”
