PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2016

TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 82 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 10/16 www.petpla.net Xtreme injection-compression moulding of ultralight PET preforms Xtremely thin walls Sipa Hall 13 Booth B11 The Xtreme injection-com- pression moulding system is different from other injec- tion-compression systems: preform moulds in blocks of three cavities are mounted on a high-speed carou- sel, and an extruder deliv- ers melt to dosing devices mounted under the moulds. Sipa will present the small- est version of the Xtreme at K 2016, capable of holding between 12 and 24 cavities. Xtreme is said to produce pre- forms that are up to 10% lighter than the lightest injection moulded preform - without losing any key properties when blown into the bottle. It is pos- sible to make a preform for a 500ml bottle that weighs just 6g. Injection- compression moulding makes it pos- sible to use lower injection pressures and lower clamp forces. With less stress being put on the melt, acetal- dehyde (AA) levels are reduced by as much as 40%. The drop in intrinsic viscosity, IV, is also much less than in injection moulding: over 70% less, in fact. 100% part inspection, fastest-in- the industry mould changeover and no hydraulic system are some of the benefits delivered by the Xtreme. As a continuous process centered on a rotary production platform, Xtreme is well suited to downstream integra- tion into rotary bottle blowing, thus benefitting from lower energy costs (no IR oven) and higher uptime (no preform feeder). Sipa has begun sell- ing Xtreme Sincro, the first monobloc injection-compression-stretch-blow moulding system. The first unit will go into commercial operation next year. Xtreme has also been shown to be ideal for upstream integration: Sipa has partnered with Erema, a leader in recycling technology, to develop Xtreme Renew, an integrated system for inline production of food contact approved preforms starting from 100% post-consumer PET flakes without the need for pre-drying. Another alternative to pre- form lightweighting: X-Mould For PET preform producers wedded to conventional injection moulding, Sipa launched a preform