40 mm ultra-compact mould pitch
PETform, hall 1 – booth E23
PETform has developed a new PET hot runner system allowing for an ultra-compact vertical mould pitch of 40 mm. On the cold half, the company has developed a robust mould stack design for 28 and 30 mm necks where the mould pitch can be set at 45 mm x 100 mm. For neck diameters of 25 mm or less, it is possible to reduce the mould pitch down to 40 mm x 95 mm.
With the lower pitch come a number of benefits: it allows for higher cavitation and higher production rates while energy consumption in the hot runner is reduced, as surface for heat loss per cavity is reduced. This also reduces the load on the chiller for cooling the backing plates.
Also reduced is material degradation in the hot runner with shorter flow path (lower shearing and residence time) as the per cavity stress on the clamping unit and the energy consumed for opening and closing the mould. The lower pitch also increases overall clamping surface to absorb clamping force, thus increasing mould life. As of the present, the highest cavitation generally being run on these 300 t machines is predominantly 48 drops and in a few cases 72 drops. PETform says that with the technology, convertors can increase their production rates to up to two times, shot size and plasticising capability permitting.
