PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2013

BOTTLE MAKING 20 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 11/13 www.petpla.net Bottles, preforms and closures, part 7 Mould trials and examination of sample bottles Normally the finalised mould design is used to make a single cavity for the production of sample bottles in a labo- ratory machine. These sample bottles are then tested com- prehensively to see whether they meet the defined require- ments. PETplanet insider is publishing extracts from succes- sive chapters of Ottmar Brandau’s “Bottles, Preforms and Closures”, which was first published by hbmedia. A revised version is reissued under the Elsevier imprint. Mould trials on laboratory machines The first trials with the new blow mould could of course also be done on the customer’s machine, but in many cases the customer’s machine will not be available for trial runs either because it is located at a distant plant, or because it is required for produc- tion, or simply because the machine has not yet been completed. This will often be the case when the mould is part of the original equipment. The first mould trials are there- fore usually performed on laboratory machines with one or only a limited number of blowing stations. In the most simple laboratory machines with