PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2011

PREFORM PRODUCTION 23 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 01+02/11 www.petpla.net This saves 50% of cooling fluid and reduces cycle times by 5 to 15%. The technology has been tried and tested in production moulds for more than 18 months now. PETplanet: Here at the K Fair you are presenting a rapid tool change system for high-flexibility production under the name of Rapide. Bruce Catoen: Yes, we found many customers who are looking for a flexible system which would allow the moulding surface inserts to be changed from one design to another in 30min or less. Through some creative tool design from our product development team we were able to come up with a system which could change these parts in 15min without the need for a crane. PETplanet: And the secret? Bruce Catoen: We leave the entire mould in the machine and change only the stacks or mould inserts (arranged in racks of four) by hand. The sets of 3 inserts are mounted to holding blocks which reduce the number of bolts to be fas- tened to a minimum. The “modules” of 4 inserts are held to a weight that can be handled easily by hand. The robot on the unload side is not a linear robot – it’s an articulated robot. The opera- tor pivots the robot to the side which enables him to get at the mould from both sides at the same time. Under normal operational circumstances the preforms for the cooling station are unloaded by the robot. PETplanet: This is the first time we have seen an articulated robot used to handle preforms. Does this not extend the unloading and hence the cycle time unnecessarily? Bruce Catoen: We are around 0.5 to 1sec second slower than a linear robot but with this system we also have our iCool and iFlow technology. This enables us to catch up. The most important thing however is the time saved during conversion. Normally you need 4h for a conversion but we take only 15min. You can work it out for yourself how many 5/10ths of a second go to make up this amount. PETplanet: The system runs on an all-electric machine from RP Injection from Italy. Will it also run on other machines? Bruce Catoen: All MPET moulds will run on any machine that is suitable for PET process- ing. We were very pleased to have RP Injec- tion supply, for the K show, their standard all- electric machine with a screw and barrel specifi- cally engineered for PET. The machine ran flawlessly at the show and it proved that a modified all- electric machine can work well for moulding pre- forms. PETplanet: So you don’t offer a complete system? Bruce Catoen: At present we are working with machine manufacturers with whom we can join forces for the supply of complete turnkey systems, not only our new Rapide but, our standard MPET moulds as well. We are looking at 2011 for the first system. PETplanet: Many thanks, Bruce. At K’ 2010, Mold-Masters was presenting a complete preform system called M-PET The system ran on an all-electric machine from RP Injection, Italy