PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2019

MOULD MAKING PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 11/19 www.petpla.net 19 In case of prefoms moulding GDXL offers for horizontal opening 32 to 144 cavities with standard and various neck finishes. Preform size ranges from pharmaceutical/cosmetic bottle to 5 gallon keg application (3.5-750 g). For a vertical opening GDXL offers cavities from 16-96. Various neck finishes are possible. The preform weight would be up to 69 g. www.gdxl.com While the company Röders Tec provided stretch blow moulds with a maximum size of 10 l in 2010, it now produces moulds for 20 l contain- ers. Röders has been developing and producing stretch blow moulds for PET bottles and containers since 1975. Through the development of their own coatings for particularly hard and smooth surfaces, Röders has man- aged to qualify aluminium moulds for hot-filling production. It has cut the manufacturing costs and the wear in the blowing machine is minimised, because of reduced weight. Chang- ing the mould is fast and easy. (RMC system) Röders has a quick and flex- ible bottle sampling. The company supplies moulds to Sidel, KHS, Krones, Sipa, Kosme, Nissei, Chumpower, Terekas and 1Blow etc. They have solutions for compatibility of moulds between different machine types. www.roeders.de/en/ Kiefer Mold has grown since its foundation in 1987 by Ulrich Kiefer, and became the specialist in manu- facturing tools in the plastics transfor- mation field. In 2010 Kiefer already produced moulds for all types of SBM machines. The maximum bottle size at that time was 10 l. Today the mould specialist produces mould for up to 30 l. Kiefer has a special design service with photochemical etching, milling, eroding and laser engraving. The moulds enable lightweight design and special designs for different prod- ucts like functional drinks, juices, oil and vinegar. Moulds are also used for household products, cosmetic- and petrochemical products. Kiefer supplied machine manufacturers like Kosme, Krones, Sipa, Sidel, ADS, Sacmi, KHS, Bekum, Side, SMI. www.kiefer-mold.de/en R&D Leverage was founded in 1976 serving the tool market. In the mid 1980’s R&D was already involved in the plastics industry. The com- pany designs and build injections tools, ISBM, SBM, and extrusion blow moulds. In 1995 the UK division was build and there injection stretch blow tooling business stared. From 2000 on an expanded Product Solution Labo- ratory is running in the UK. In this lab- oratory they can trial products, colour, materials plus qualify product tooling on SBM machines. Today R&D Lever- age supplies Sidel, Krones, Sipa, Side and Chumpower with stretch blow moulds. The maximum bottle size is 5 l. R&D also supplies retrofit moulds for existing SBM machines. Also prefom tooling belongs to R&D Lever- age specialities. Preform mould for up to 96 cavities with perform sizes from 24mm through 63mm neck, with 12 g through 350 g weight can be pro- duced. R&D Leverage builds moulds for Husky, BM Biraghi, Milacron, Engel, Krupp, Krauss Maffei. www.rdleverage.com Husky Injection Molding Sys- tems Ltd. is a supplier of injection moulding equipment and services to the plastics industry. Husky design, manufacture and integrate a range of injection moulding equipment, includ- ing machines, moulds, hot runners, auxiliaries and integrated systems. It is known for its preform equipment which is used to produce a range of products for the beverage packaging, closures, thinwall packaging, medical, and consumer electronics markets. With more than 35 years of experi- ence in the preform industry, Husky produces preform moulds with a cavity from 6 to 144. Threads were produced from up to 100mm in diameter and up to 205mm in length. Husky produces moulds to support all perform designs and output requirements. www.husky.co New generation of hot runners at MHT Since PET degrades quickly, both thermally and mechanically, the hot runner is highly significant in the manufacture of PET preforms. As a tool specialist, MHT Mold & Hotrunner Technology AG has developed a new generation of hot runners, optiRUN, that greatly reduces the formation of dust, a phenomenon feared by preform manufacturers. The dust is formed when a gaseous substance made of PET fission products precipi- tates on the metallic tool surfaces. With the new hot runner, the main- tenance intervals are now longer. The hot runner was developed in collabo- ration with the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, which engaged in fundamental research on dwell times and the degradation of materials. The result is a conventional two-plate construction that is equipped with indi- vidual modular hot runner packages. This as well as the small-volume individually regulated heating zones makes very uniform temperature control across the entire system pos- sible. Due to the division, it was also possible to re-design and improve the balancing and deflections of the melt flow with the help of simulations. The results of the short-shot test were excellent. The cooled adapter plates on the individual hot runner packages serve more than one purpose: They supply air, provide temperature control for the valve gate and can also make the use of different piston housings pos- sible. This means that if the installa- tion dimensions of future hot runner components should differ from the current Vulcan II series, one simply needs to exchange the adapter plates. Of course the new hot runner is 100% compatible with existing cold tool sides. One of optiRUN’s strengths lies in the processing of recycled PET as well as PET flakes. According to an EU directive, adding 25% rPET to fresh PET granules is prescribed as of 2025. From 2030, this proportion even goes up to 30%. It is important to be prepared for this with regard to MHT tools with a long service life. The focus will also be on the challenging processing of flakes. Starting immediately, information related to durability can be obtained from the cycle counter, which is installed by default, and the option- ally available operating hours counter. Several prototypes of the optiRUN hot