PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2015

PREFORM PRODUCTION 26 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 03/15 www.petpla.net Sipa synchronises light preform production The production plant Mr Enrico Gribaudo, Sipa’s General Manager says: “One that is compact, flexible and easy to operate; which has very low energy consumption; which treats the PET as gently as possible to keep material highest quality; which provides perfect product handling without damaging the preforms in any way and which produces bottles with extraordinary performance, but which are lighter than anything available on the market thus reducing the amount of PET used.” Preforms are 10% lighter The preforms are 10% lighter than preform produced by conventional injection molding - without losing any key properties. Injection-compression molding overcomes the issue of filling moulds with very thin walls, by having the moulds slightly open when injec- tion starts, and closing them as dosing finishes. Lower injection pressure can be used, lower clamp force is needed, reducing 10%. The integration of the preform injection-compression and the bottle blowing operations has a further effect. There is no need to cool down the preforms after molding, and the need to reheat them just before blow- ing is reduced. Mould change The SFR EVO3 has a new mould changeover system. It relieved to convert from production of cold-fill to hot-fill containers, too. This is because of the heating circuit remains in the shell holder; the cooling circuit is built into the cavity. Filling is fully integrated. Xtreme Sincro system can be directly con- nected to filling equipment developed and produced by Sipa. The Xtreme Sincro project is real- ized with the contribution of the Life financial instrument of the European Union. www.sipa.it Preforms transfer to conditionimg station there is less stress on the melt-acetal- dehyde (AA) levels are reduced, and resin intrinsic viscosity (IV) falls less. Compact system The product changeover times are reduced. With its rotary configuration and its pneumatic actions, it fits into integrated preform molding and blow- ing operations. In the Xtreme Sincro, it is directly coupled to an SFR EVO3 next-generation rotary stretch-blow molding unit. Special features include new designs in the clamp unit and in the cams that help the SFR EVO3 to achieve a max. output rate of 2250 bph per cavity, putting it on the front line of the grid with the competition. The blowing valve block is more com- pact, it has 35% less dead air volume. The overall footprint is reduced and compact. Eenergy consumption The Xtreme injection-compression system uses lower temperatures than an injection molding system, energy The Xreme Sincro brings together in a single machine Sipa’s preform compression molding system with a high-speed stretch-blow molding unit.