PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2014

CAPPING / CLOSURES 38 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 03/14 www.petpla.net advaltech Foboha specialise in moulds for 2-component closures. With patented developments Foboha have played a decisive role in the field stack turning technology and/or cube technologies for manufacturing multi component parts in plastic. Over a period of 30 years Foboha have developed around 2,000 multi-compo- nent injection moulds. Foboha service the international premium niche mar- kets, in particular closures for energy drinks and/or food supplements. Hansjörg Keusgen quote: “In instances where the design is coordinated with the process and is right for the process, the advantages of cube technology are clear; complex components with just one machine – machine clamping force halved – cavities doubled – production cycles significantly shortened. Numereous ptoduct ideas are generated by this technology.“ Mold-Masters We met: Michael Feltes, Director Business Development Iris & E-Multi Claudiu Bolovan, Program Man- ager, New Products Mold-Masters hot runners are to be found on a large number of injection moulding machines being exhibited and demonstrated at the K 2013 Fair, for example on the Engel, Netstal, Stork, Sumitomo Demag and Ferromatik Milacron stands. On their own stand, Mold-Masters were show- casing their electric E-Multi injection unit in a multi-component applica- tion – on an all-electric Ferromatik Milacron F160 with F&S mould. The items for injection moulding were 38mm closures in HDPE for hot fill, into which a barrier made from EVOH was co-injected – using the so-called Iris co-injection process. Michael Feltes quote: “The new type of process (co- injection) offers a revolutionary alter- native to traditional packaging meth- ods. As far as we are concerned there is no doubt that there is a market for multi-component closures, especially - and in particular in the case of large closures - where the penetration of oxygen to the inside and/or nitrogen to the outside is greater than it is with PET bottles”. The product The E-Multi is a compact, all- electric injection unit that is directly mounted on the mould. E-Multi and Iris co-injection can be installed on standard injection moulding machines, lowering overall capital costs compared to other systems while providing 100% process con- trol with a fully integrated control system. Features The E-Multi combines five Mold-Mas- ters core technologies:  Iris the compact co-injections nozzle (two materials flow in paral- lel)  iFlow the distribution technology for a balanced infeed of melt and homogenous cavity filling  E-Drive checking the needle opening and closing movement by means of the precision E-Drive Servo System  TempMaster M2 hot runner tem- perature control system  E-Multi all-electric additional injec- tion unit mounted on the mould side (direct servo drive for injection, belt drive for barrel). Claudiu Bolovan quote: “These five core elements are integrated and interlinked on a single control system. The electronics of the controls are the brains of the system – controlling the E-Multi (barrel and needle movements) as well as the hot runner temperatures.” MHS We met: Harald Schmitt, President Jörg Schmidt, Managing Director Founded in 2002, with headquar- ters in Ontario, Canada, the company specialises in high performance, runnerless injection moulding sys- tems. At K 2013, MHS showcased its Rheo-Pro iVG stack mould hot runner system in a stack mould for double part output – in an application for caps and closures. The new MHS stack mould tech- nology - injecting parts in both direc- tions using two parting lines - allows plastic closure manufacturer to double production of valve gated parts with- out having to run additional or larger moulding machines. A standard 48+48 iVG stack mould in a small 200t injec- tion moulding machine can produce 96 light weight bottle closures every 3s and thus is claimed to be over 30% more cost efficient than the conven- tional 96 cavity single face hot runner system. Major savings are in lower capital investment for smaller mould- ing machines with less clamp tonnage required, in energy savings, reduced space requirement and a lower carbon footprint. Harald Schmidt quote: “The moulder benefits from the ability to produce more plastic parts in smaller machines with less clamp ton- nage - which means better operating cost, significantly higher production outputs and most importantly, better profitability.” Mold-Masters techonology at K 2013 MHS stand at K 2013