PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2014

EDITOUR REPORT 18 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 11/14 www.petpla.net during the last eighteen months. Arrangements are already in place for the follow-up. The 220t machine has been upgraded. The maximum mould size on this platform is at present 72 cavities and it is now also possible to use third party moulds. A further addition to the series is a 96-cavity preform system with a 400t clamping force already in the test phase and this will be introduced by the end of 2014.” According to Moraldo Masi: “With the 48 to 96-cavity preform systems we are able to access more than 60% of the market.” The percentage being exported is high, with the company supplying the Middle East, Northern and Cen- tral Africa and South East Asia. Some 50% of deliveries have also included an order for closure cap machines. Preform machine range (ISP) up to the end of 2014 ISP 220 up to 72 cavities  Screw diameter 85/100mm  Clamping force 220t IPS 400 up to 96 cavities  Screw diameter 140mm  Clamping force 400t Machine technology (Hybrid)  Toggle lever clamping unit  2-stage injection with shooting pot, electric drive for plasticising and servo valve drive for the injection plunger  Integrated unload system with post-cooling, arranged to side, with energy recuperation via the braking process.  Cooling water and compressed air supply partly via the machine platens  Ease of set up by inputting the main preform data  Moulds from own mould construction incl. hot runners Cycle time  72-cavity, 0.5l water preform, 6.5sec Other PET applications The decision to build preform injection moulding machines does not mean that Sacmi has given up the idea of using compression technology for PET in stand-alone system. Moraldo Masi states: “We will continue with the development of PET lines for special applications where the preform needs to resist extreme conditions and where compression technology is advantageous (e.g. no gate, special resins where the IV is greater than 1 etc.” CCM closure cap machines Within the closure cap division at Sacmi there is one question that answers itself and that is, one piece or two piece closures? 90% of supplied closure cap lines are for one piece closures. A line for closure caps incorporating a tamper band consists of the actual compression moulding machine and a series-connected slitter which makes the slit in the tamper band. Depending on the design of the closure, a further module, the folder, may be required. Optionally, an inspec- tion unit for inspecting the individual closures may be installed. Everything is from a single source. Approximately 100 plastic closure lines are supplied annually as well as seven to eight crown cork lines. As regards the plastics lines, 65 to 70% are for CSD, 30 to 35% for water and 2 to 5% for hot fill and juices. The company’s own mould construction facility supplies approximately 250 sets a year, either already installed in the lines or as sets for retrofitting, with an average of 32 cavities per set. There are five capacity volumes in the machinery range:  24 cavity up to 33mm cap diameter  24 cavity up to 63mm cap diameter as a special  32 cavity up to 43mm cap diameter  48 cavity up to 33mm cap diameter  64 cavity up to 43mm cap diameter  80 cavity up to 33mm cap diameter Extrusion capacities from 600 to 2.000 closures per minute. The best-selling line is the 48-cavity. Lightest closure: less than 1g water with 26mm cap diameter and olive plug. Massimo Gani sums up the situation on the closure market: “Some time ago, 2-piece closures in PP tended to predominate within our range of equipment. The develop- ment of the super-lightweight closures in the water sector ushered in a trend towards 1-piece closures. Nor did it stop with the CSDs. The development of lightweight 1-piece water closures came about during the implementation phase more in relation to the injection moulding process”. He continues: “Today the majority of applications for water closures are to be found in the injection moulding sector; in the case of CSD most are in compression moulding. World- wide, the ratio of compression to injection moulding is 65 to 35%. We have already noted that some customers have in the past undergone a shift of orientation in regard to the manufacturing process. In terms of sales, however, this has not had any material impact because the strong growth has compensated for it. We responded and initially increased the mechanical speed of our lines. But, when it came to adapting process technology to the machine speed, it became necessary to Massimo Gani, Closures Sales Manager, in front of a CCM compression moulding closure caps machine in the assembly bay