PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2012

PREFORM PRODUCTION 18 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 03/12 www.petpla.net Sacmi makes a new start in the preform sector Addition to the family Sacmi has developed a completely new preform injection machine. Against the backdrop of the Plastmilano exhibi- tion in May, the Italians, in addition to a new 24-cavity com- pression line for closures, will be showing off to the public the newest addition to their family of preform manufacture, sporting 48 cavities and with a clamping force of 220 t. IPS, which stands for Injection Preform System, is the name cal- culated to give the established competition a headache. The unloading system is built up by a three-stage post cooling station Five years ago was the last time Sacmi captured the attention of the market with its idea of manufacturing preforms using compression moulding techniques. The PAM system, as it is known, processes high viscosity mate- rial (IV 1,15). In this way considerably more robust bottles can be produced with further reductions in wall thick- ness. And, with compression moulding, there is no need to focus too much on the geometric preform requirements of injection moulding; random bottom geometries, with optimised wall thick- ness profiling, should not pose a prob- lem. Thus preforms promise to become very lightweight. The IPS preform system Sacmi’s present aim is not only to generate attention by means of a new technology, but also to develop a new injection moulding machine for PET preform named IPS. Although Sacmi, along with its subsidiaries BMB Biragi, Negri Bossi and Oima, has had pre- form injection moulding machines in its range, the solutions had, neverthe- less, always been based on standard machines, adapted where necessary to make them suitable for PET and this is reflected in performance and costs. Moraldo Masi, Head of the PET BU summarised the situation as follows: ”We found ourselves with a jigsaw of variations but no clear strategy“. Two years ago the Italians changed all this. Starting from scratch, they drew up a specification sheet taking into account all the requirements, both on the part of the customer and those stipulated by the internal company departments. Masi continued: “Naturally, we are helped by the fact that we are very well aware how an optimum preform and its production should look, based on our closure business, our Laboratory and R&D and our beverages division which features stretch blow moulding and fill- ing systems. There are hardly any market protag- onists who have at their disposal such a wealth of knowledge which has been collected over what is now a period of 20 years“. The established preform system manufacturers from Canada and Switzerland have set themselves up as the benchmark when it comes to minimum cycle times and manufac- turing reliability. On the other hand, as far as the converting (transformations) costs are concerned, Sacmi is anxious to close the gap on the market leaders. Their intention is, with their 48-compart- ment mould, to achieve the low pro- duction costs that are the hallmark of a very fast mould change. The result is a system that is peppered with interesting details. Let’s start with the control. The outcome of the Sacmi analyses was that it is important as regards the reliability of