PETpla.net Insider 11+12 / 2017

TRADE SHOW REVIEW PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 11+12/17 www.petpla.net 42 Sidel presents concept SBM oven with laser diodes Precise heating of preform to widen packaging opportunities by Alexander Büchler By replacing the currently used infrared heating element, laser diodes can supply the pre- form with a precise temperature profile, enabling significantly better material distribution in the blown bottle. The temperature profile allows the manufacturing of geometrics which were not possible to blow hitherto. This could also result in potential material savings: as the solution is currently in development phase, the team at Sidel is still evaluating the exact figure. In an interview, Vice President for Packaging at Sidel Vincent Le Guen shows us a wine glass stretch-blown from a PET preform. Have you ever seen any PET bottle similar to the Sidel PET wine glass? This type of profile is not achievable with the current SBM tech- nology. Why? The radiation emission of the IR halogen lamps is diffused and cannot be precise enough on heating zones. With laser instead, Sidel achieve a narrowly focused radi- ation, allowing a very precise heating profile without any interaction among the heating zones. So, packaging producers can play with the material distribution and allocate it where it is needed. As a result, the wider process window unlocks innovative packaging design opportunities. At drinktec 2017, Sidel has shown how the upcoming laser oven technol- ogy can achieve new bottle shapes like the wine glass. Near infrared laser diodes are used in the SBM heating function. This allows the preforms to be heated more precisely individually, with three times more layered zones. This enables a great material stretch- ing during the bottle blowing, from the shoulder to the bottom zone. Sidel demonstrated how flexible the new process can be by stretch-blowing a wine glass. The laser oven technology builds on the solid-state emitter trend for LED to perform accurate preform heat- ing with infrared. As an alternative to the currently used infrared solu- tion, VCSEL laser diode extends the process capability and flexibility of the existing blower, for improved bottle quality and greater packaging opportu- nities. Emitting a more focused narrow spectrum selected to optimise in-depth interaction with polymers, such as PET, laser diodes irradiate at a low tem- perature (less than 30 to 40°C) with no need of oven ventilation. Compared to a halogen oven, there are three times as many heating zones in the new solution from Sidel. Also, the reduced oven pitch enables a higher number of preforms to be accommodated in two rows in a shorter heating zone: heating time is reduced to just a few seconds. These shorter heating modules make it possible to create a compact machine, with the potential to reduce the oven footprint by up to 60% for optimised line layout. The extensive process window increases packaging opportunities with greater freedom in bottle shape design. The heating process is incred- ibly accurate and stable, allowing consistent material distribution for greater efficiency and top bottle qual- ity from the very outset of production. Needing no ventilation, it provides heating independent of ambient, envi- ronmental conditions. This means that the same set-up is used for the same bottle quality regardless of time of day or seasonal conditions. Changeover is fast and efficient with minimal manual intervention, a reduced number of spindles to change and quick machine startup after stop- page. Needing less maintenance because of the long lifetime of the diodes, Sidel’s new laser heating solu- tion is also highly user-friendly, with very few parameters to set up. We spoke to Vincent Le Guen, Vice President for Packaging at Sidel. Since 2011, he has been responsible for all areas of packaging develop- ment, such as packaging and preform design, packaging optimisation and qualification as well as liquid-package interaction analysis. His career path has come full circle: Sidel, Coca-Cola, Plastic Technologies Inc. Europe (PTI- Europe) and in 2011, Vincent re-joined Sidel as Vice President for Packaging. www.sidel.com Heike Fischer, PETplanet Insider, Vincent Le Guen, VP Packaging at Sidel and Alexander Büchler, PETplanet Insider