PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2017

BOTTLE MAKING 39 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 Please order your copy at the PETplanet Insider book shop: www.petpla.net/book3 Stretch Blow Molding Second Edition by Ottmar Brandau € 130,00 320 pages © Copyright Elsevier 2012 2. Material Basics 2.1 Manufacture and states of PET Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) belongs to the group of mate- rials known as thermoplastic polymers. The application of heat causes the softening and deformation of thermo- plastics. In contrast, ther- mosets cure or solidify with the application of heat, and simply burn with continued heating. Like all polymers, PET is a large molecule consisting of chains of repeating units. The PET used for bottles typi- cally has about 100–140 of the repeating units shown in fig. 2.1. Figure 2.1 The ring structure makes PET tough while the ethylene component gives it flexibility. A monomer is a single unit, which is repeated to form a polymer chain (Greek ‘mono’ one; ‘meros’ part). Polymerisation is the name given to the types of reactions where many monomer units are chemically linked to form polymers (‘polys’ many). A resin with only one type of monomer is called a homopolymer. Copoly- mer resins are the result of modifying the homopolymer chain with varying amounts of a second monomer (or co- monomer) to change some of the performance properties of the resin. This can be repre- sented by: homopolymer AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA co-polymer ABAAABAAAAABAAABBAA PET is manufactured as a homopolymer or co-polymer. Figure 2.2 An alcohol and an acid form the ester groups of PET that make it a polyester. IMAGINE USING ANY PREFORM MOLD IN ONE SYSTEM. AT THE FASTEST SPEED. XFORM 500 enters its third generation. The XFORM 500 GEN3 PET preform system gives you unprecedented flexibility combined with the fastest speed and the highest running efficiency: it accepts the widest range of legacy tooling present in the market. So you can feel free to innovate and grow without penalizing your existing assets. We made it happen. Designed to adapt. Built to last. SIPA S.p.A. - Via Caduti del Lavoro, 3 - 31029 Vittorio Veneto (TV) - Italy Tel. +39 0438 911511 - Fax +39 0438 912273 - email: sipa@zoppas.com www.sipa.it yesterday today