PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2010

PREFORM PRODUCTION 22 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 03/10 www.petpla.net base with quality at par with the mature beverage packaging market. The number of times the most utilized mould has opened and closed is 6 million and it is still not possible to forecast when it is going to need a general overhaul. As far as Adit Gupta is concerned, the machines and the mould are running without any prob- lems. Thanks to the outstanding paral- lelism of the plates, the KraussMaffei PET forming system has proved to be a guarantee of extremely long mould life and has made reliable production of preforms to close tolerances possible over very many years. When it comes to removing the preforms from the mould in the vertical system, KraussMaffei makes use of the laws of gravity. The even distribution of force in the vertical system results in a precision closing movement and the precision mould locking device con- serves the sensitive thread areas on the preform moulds. Likewise contingent on the vertical technology, the removal robot is of straightforward and lightweight construction; complicated mechanisms are not necessary. The preforms can be removed from the mould at an early stage. Thanks to the fact that there are only a few moving parts, the robot can be extended and retracted very quickly into the closure with very little power output. The times needed for removal from the mould are short and short cycles are guaranteed. In conjunction with the high rates of material throughput achieved with the HPX worm conveyors and an effective, 4-stage post-cooling station, this ensures short cycle times and a high level of productivity. This transforms the PET forming systems from KraussMaffei into economical high- performance cells as well as a reliable solution for AMD. Adit Gupta particularly praises the capability of the machines to use the hydraulics to run the plant empty in the event of a power failure so that no preforms are left in the mould. AMD’s PET forming systems are fitted with a power back-up option. In the event of a power failure on account of grid power and backup option – for instance during injection moulding – the PET form- ing systems are capable of completely stopping the machine in mid-process. This means shutting down the injec- tion moulding section, removing the preform from the mould, opening the closure and handing the preform over to the robot unloading device. In this way the exasperating “core hammering“ is avoided because no preforms freeze up at the cores. Productivity increases and eliminates the risk of damaging the mould cores when hammering them off. The fact that this is important to Adit Gupta is demonstrated by the fact that he has also had retrofitting work carried out on the older machines. In any event, on average he finds that he suffers a loss of power twice a day but which is well taken care by power backup. PCO 28 production is highly flexible. The 2 Sacmi plants, each with a capac- ity of 600 caps/minute, are capable of delivering into interim silos; a rapid change of colours is possible with the two printing machines. “We have frequent changes of colour, depending on the customer specification, but even more frequent The AMD helmsman Adit Gupta (right) and WG CDR ML Sharma welcome Alexander Büchler at the AMD plant in Ghaziabad.