PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2015

PREFORM PRODUCTION 20 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 01+02/15 www.petpla.net New PET Line 5000 for up to 144 cavities Netstal completes PET-Line family on a high Up to ten percent less energy consumption com- pared to the previous model and even up to 20 percent compared with the compe- tition. One year after the launch of the new model series with PET-Line 2400 and 4000, Netstal is pre- senting its new PET-Line 5000 for moulds with up to 144 cavities. Testimony to the fact that the company is actually completing its PET- Line family on a high. The “Big Boy“ has been devel- oped specially for markets with extremely high output quantities and is designed for moulds where the number of cavities ranges from 96 to 144. Like the smaller models, it offers a number of new developments in the energy consumption, closed loop technology and machine control sectors, including, for example, an energy-efficient adaptive drive unit. This no longer operates at a constant pump pressure but instead can be flexibly adapted to the requirements of applications and cycles. In addi- tion, all the electrical drive motors on the machine are combined within an intermediate circuit so that the brak- ing energy arising during operation can be used elsewhere. Altogether the savings amount to around ten percent of the power requirement compared to the previous model. Of the total costs of a preform, around 80 to 85% represents the price of the raw material for the material processed. Because it is not possible to influence this variable, optimisa- tion as regards the machine operat- ing costs are the medium of choice for converters and bottlers to enable them to remain competitive at an international level. As a result it pays to be energy efficient. The same applies to speed. In the case of the new PET-Line 5000, the lock-to-lock time from opening the mould, taking into account the time needed to remove the preform prior to re-locking, is up to half a second faster than it was previously. For standard applications with cycle times of less than ten seconds, this means an output of ten thousand more pre- forms per day. This has been made possible thanks to new closed loop technology: this involves the installa- tion of exclusively digital controllers, combining them with the most modern valve technology. The effect of shorter reaction times and higher oil displace- ment is to bring about faster move- ment of the mould and to reduce the duration of the machine drying cycle. The drive to achieve greater speeds has also resulted in the incorporation of a robot developed by themselves which is capable of dynamic travel into the mould, even if it has yet to be opened to its fullest extent. It has to be possible to calcu- late efficiency. In the pilot model for the machine series, the PET-Line 2400 has given Netstal the economic advantage. In the case of one sample application involving a 25g preform fabricated in a 72-cavity mould, the output per hour increases by 13.6%,