PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2012

PREFORM PRODUCTION 13 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 01+02/12 www.petpla.net The thread Sipa is studying further reductions in threads Still products Novembal 267 necks in still water bot- tles has already been reduced, from 3.6g to 2.6g: a saving of 27%. Special modifications on the line enable further reduction, to 1.8g – a total cut of 50% - which is already in use with Premium Water and other mineral water bot- tlers. A 3.9g Novembal 30/25 thread is widely used in non-carbonated drinks and a stripped-down version weighing 3.2g has already been used in several different projects. Towards Sipa the new trend in the global market is now Novembal 29/25 which is 2.5 g already adopted by sev- eral bottlers worldwide. Sipa is study- ing a further reduction of the new trend without any conversion to the cap and bottling line. CSD The PCO1881 standard, now widely adopted for carbonated drinks, weighs 3.7g, compared to 5g for the PCO1810; Sipa has already validated a 3.4g version and it says that is working to reach an extremely light- weight finish at 2.5g with the same performances of the existing necks on the market. Hot fill: It has already launched two lightweighted neck finishes for hot fill, which is marketed as the ‘HotLight 28’ and HotLight 26. Their weights are only 3.8g, which is 41% lighter than the standard neck finish’s 6.4g. Sipa describes the HotLight necks as an evolution of a traditional neck that is usually adopted for CSD. The com- pany says that it does not compromise the bottle seal even if the filling tem- perature is 90°C (standard for RTD) and that it allows the production of hot fill and CSD containers on the same machine. It is being used by Universal Robina Corporation, Philippines and PT Mayora, Indonesia. Blow moulding and downstream Sipa’s rotary blow moulding equip- ment includes a system that ena- bles the body to be reheated without deforming the neck. Preform loading now has a system that expels pre- forms that have become lodged one inside the other, as light preforms with small bodies have a tendency to stack together. The new system ejects them and enables loading rates of up to 48,000 preforms/h. The shape of the preform carrier in the SFR rotary stretch-blow mould- ing machine has been improved in order to ensure the stability of the preform during heating, and to keep the neck temperature as low as pos- sible. Sipa has modified the ventila- tion modules in the oven, in order to facilitate processing of very light necks by improving cooling of the neck while increasing the capacity to heat the preform. The configuration of the infrared lamps has also been adjusted. Sipa’s ‘crocodile style’ vertical mould opening system is designed to keep centrifugal forces on preforms and bottles at a very low level. This means that the grippers do not have to pinch the necks to maintain the pre- forms and bottles in the correct posi- tion, which is important in handling easily deformable lightweight necks. Downstream, Sipa has modified filling and sealing procedures in order to minimise stress on the contain- ers and has paid particular attention to lifting and contact forces. Light- weight necks need to be sealed using an axial load that may be as little as half that used for normal bottles. www.sipa.com