PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2017

INSPECTION 15 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 03/17 www.petpla.net All around inspection for PET bottle production Rising to new challenges The combination of faster line speeds and lighter weight bottles and closures presents challenges for converters as well as bottlers. There is also an increased focus on seal integrity, particularly in the context of the trend to one-piece, plug-style closures. Inspection systems are, increasingly, being deployed at every step in the filling process. The closure is inspected on both the external side and the product side; the preform and empty bottle are inspected in the blowmoulder to examine the seal sur- face and inner bore for critical defects that may affect seal performance; and the filled/capped bottle is inspected for closure application defects, such as a rolled plug seal. Many of these individual defects become more difficult to detect at today’s higher line speeds. This has inspired Pressco to further develop and refine its software algorithms, which has helped to minimise false rejects and acceptances, alike. Its system now provides correlation of defects at the blowmoulder for mould, spindle, and transfer arm; and at the filler for filling valve and capping head. This speeds troubleshooting by clearly identifying which machine components are pro- ducing defective products. Bottles made using rPET/PCR have a much higher risk of foreign matter contamination, which can result in critical blowforming defects. Detecting these is very difficult once a bottle is blown; geometric features in some bottle designs can hide the con- taminants from inspection systems. The key, then, is to inspect for these inclusions before blowing the bottle. In order to do so, Pressco has devel- oped a solution for preform inspection inside the blowmoulder – an indus- try-first. The PW360 is a custom- designed module that provides full 360-degree inspection of the preform sidewall. This enables easier detec- tion of foreign materials that may have become embedded in the plastic; a faulty preform can thus be detected and removed from the process before further value is added. As brand owners move toward self- manufacture, a single production line can be blow-fill-label or blow-label-fill. This requires distributed inspections at the blowmoulder, cap feeder, filler, labeller and even case packer. It is the “preventable rejects” – filled bot- tles deemed defective due to a faulty component such as a bad bottle or closure – that often make up the great- est amount of scrap on a blow-fill line. A close-coupled line operating at a nominal 48,000bph will see a signifi- cant reduction of total cost by inspect- ing empty bottles in the blowmoulder and closures at the cap feeder. An ongoing initiative at a number of converters, as well as bottlers who self-manufacture, is to standardise and consolidate technology so that qual- ity objectives can be achieved effi- ciently, without the challenge of mixed platforms, software, training, and so on. Pressco’s scalable, modular Intel- lispec platform allows each customer to deploy an integrated solution that facilitates inspection in multiple line locations, from a single control point. www.pressco.com Pressco Technology, which has recently celebrated its 50 th anniversary, has been focused on addressing a range of trends that are impacting PET bottle inspection. These include faster line speeds, lightweighting of bottles and clo- sures, increased use of post-consumer regrind (PCR) mate- rial; and close-coupled blow-fill lines. Any one of these is significant; having two or more in the same production envi- ronment can put severe demands on any inspection system. Pressco’s latest Intellispec platform has been designed to deliver high performance in defect detection, in the most advanced lines, including any or all of these conditions. Empty bottle inspection Full bottle inspection Preform inspection PW 360 INSPECTION S P E C I A L