PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2011

BOTTLE MAKING 24 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 10/11 www.petpla.net very busy, very much alive, and very active. With the acquisition of Berchi Sipa is now able to take on the big “Three”, when it comes to complete and integrated lines, i.e. Sidel, Krones and KHS. This, surely, is the next big challenge for the company. Single stage product range Sipa customers can select from two families of product, i.e.  The big ECS FX range with an output between 9,000 to max. 36,000bhp.  The medium to low ECS HS range with 2,000 to max. 16,000bhp Design principles of both ranges are similar with FX range having one injection unit with 4 shot pots instead of just one, and having double condi- tioning stations, double blowing and double bottle ejection instead of just one as in case of the HS range. ECS FX features  Highest output for beverage bot- tles 36,000bhp for mineral water FX20/80.  Hot fill 30,000bph.  Highest output for 73mm wide mouth containers. Possibility of simultaneously pro- ducing two different containers having different weights and shapes for differ- ent applications. ECS HS features  Largest single mould integrated machine on the market  Challenger to two stage when it comes to output per capita  Machine cavitation for 52 mm finish, 24 injection cavities. The production To see the full range of the Sipa single stage fleet you have to go fly to China or to the United States. Or visit San Benedetto, close to Vittorio Veneto, where the same machinery is being put through its paces. We could see Sipa single stage systems only on Sipa’s shop floor. An ECS FX 20/48EVO for an US cus- tomer, for instance: on the injection side one large central plasticising unit, providing four shot pots and from there into 4x12 cavities. Thereafter automatic transfer into the condition- ing on each side and thereafter blow- ing and out-transfer. Most part of the assembly shop floor however is taken up by the manufacture of blowers (rotary and linear). Sipa has invested in a continu- ous assembly line. The machines are towed on trolleys from one work sta- tion to the next and completed stage by stage. Material is supplied direct to the line (canban system). The rotary blowers especially have enjoyed an overall good market reception. We also noted modern machine tooling, where injection and blow moulds are made. For machines, Sipa outsource mechanical components and subas- semblies. For moulds, Sipa manu- facture all parts in-house. This is a sensible policy, bearing in mind that money in the PET world is the supply of moulds rather than machines. The high number of trial and demo machines was staggering– we saw experiments with horizontal injec- tion moulding machines, with PET bottle coating and the everyday but vital trials with new bottle shapes and sizes. www.sipa.it Typical applications for Sipa’s single stage machinery