PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2010

TRADE SHOW REVIEW 30 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 12/10 www.petpla.net Faster mould changeovers A modular mould design from Sidel has made SMED (single minute exchange of dies) a reality. At the same time, the company has unveiled a new blow-moulder that achieves energy savings of up to 45%. With market demands for individuality and instantly-iden- tifiable bottle shapes, the pressure has been on mould man- ufacturing companies to deliver ever-faster changeovers. Sidel used the opportunity of K Show to present a single mould that can cater for various different bottle shapes. Sidel says that Modulomold enables several bottles of the same size (up to 700ml) to be produced in a single mould. It uses removable mould inserts, designed in accordance with Smed methodology so that they can be assembled and disassembled without tools. The units cannot be laterally mixed up; for ease of identification, they are colour coded - red for the insert to be placed in the left half-mould, green for the right. Each numbered insert is kept in a specially designed box, for safety in transport and storage as well as good workstation ergonomics. Bottles produced in Modulo- mold have two shared parts: the labelling area and the base. Either one or both of the shoulder and the body can be cus- tomised with the inserts. The company claims that the mould actually beats the single-minute target: changeovers can be achieved in less than 30s. Sidel also demonstrated its new SBO Universal2 Eco blow moulder, which reduces energy consumption in the oven by up to 45%. The company says that it has changed the oven configuration, cutting the number of lamps per module as well as the number of heating modules. Eco has a 40mm pitch (distance between two spindles) instead of 50mm, eleven oven modules instead of 14, and eight lamps per module rather than nine. As a result, installed electri- cal power has been decreased by more than 40%. Opti- misation of oven efficiency has helped to reduce heating time by up to 15%. At the same time, greater precision in preform heat treatment is claimed to ensure that techni- cal characteristics and bottle quality are maintained at the same levels as the rest of the SBO Universal blow moulder range. Lower installed power also helps to reduce the oven’s footprint. Sidel ran an SBO 14 Universal2 Eco blow moulder (28,000bph) equipped with the new oven design machine at K Show, producing 1.5l EcoLoop sparkling water bottles. electricity consumption was 2.6Wh per bottle, 44.7% lower than the SBO Universal2 demonstration machine achieved at drinktec 2009. The new system can be adapted to existing machines. PETplanet has already reported on other Sidel developments present at K Show, including Bottle Switch. www.sidel.com Rotary blowmoulder Italian company Sipa SpA introduced a new addition to its SFR Evo series of rotary blowmoulders at K Show, which it demonstrated at 2,300b/h/c. The SFR 6 Evo has just six cavities but its output capacity is up to 13,800 bph. Among the technologies carried forward from the SFL linear range are the preform alignment system, which is located inside the machine and contributes to its small footprint; a technopolymer transport chain; and the heating oven.The SFR Rotary’s traditional blowing unit has vertical mould opening. It is built into the new model, as are blowing units and relative electronic control, which have been developed in the SFR 6 Evo to ensure process consistency at up to 2,300bph per cavity. Sipa’s ARS and ARS-Plus air recovery systems are designed to achieve significant savings in compressed air and electricity. SFR 6 Evo, can, option- ally, be equipped with an electrical stretch unit, which allows contain- ers to be manufactured at different speeds. The company says that extremely lightweight and particularly complex containers can be produced on the new equipment, a recent example being a one-litre container that weighs just 16g and can be made at up to 2,200 bph per cavity. Sipa further claims that this is the first rotary machine that can be equipped with preferential heating. For CSD containers, blow- ing speed can be changed depending on filling capacity – e.g., high speeds for small formats and low speeds for larger. www.sipa.it