PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2019

PREFORM PRODUCTION PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 12/19 www.petpla.net 15 PET preforms – some high- lights 1999-2019, as reported in PETplanet Insider 1999 In our first issue, a 3-layer preform system was presented by Demag and installed at Kulleborn & Stenström in Sweden. Recycled material was used for the inner layer. At that time, the Swedish company produced 70 mil- lion preforms for 0.5 l bottles for Coca Cola. 2000 In issue 6, Husky presented a 60-cavity Quad Index machine as a further development of the Index range introduced in 1997. With this, a 7 sec cycle time could be achieved for 0.5 l preforms. 2001 PETplanet’s first book “Dressed to fill” was published. Cycle times of 14-16 sec for preforms with wall thick- nesses of 3.0-3.6mm were by then standard. Issue 6 saw Netstal’s new 144- cavity preform system with a cycle time of less than 11sec for a 20.8g preform. The machine was shown at that year’s K show. The tool came from MHT. We featured the first verti- cal Krauss-Maffei preform system for many years in issue 8, with a 24-cavity tool from Otto Hofstetter. In issue 9 Robert Schad, back then CEO of Husky, expressed hesita- tion with regard to taking up the 144- cavity challenge laid down by Netstal. At the following K trade show, a 144- cavity micro-pitch tool (at least a dis- play model) was shown on the stand (as reported in issue 11+12). Also in issue 9, MHT presented the micro-pitch tool in detail. It allowed 72-cavity tools to be run on a 300 t machine rather than the usual 48 cavi- ties, and a 144-cavity run on a 600 t machine which previously could run only 96 tools. Arburg featured the vertically orientated Preliner in issue 11, with 130 t and 220 t versions for up to 16 cavities. 2002 We saw the first Krupp preform system in issue 10, under the Engel name. The range, rebranded as MacPET, had undergone a major overhaul by Engel and covered machines from 250-500 t. 2003 Husky presented the new develop- ments of the Index machine in issue 8. The machine now went up to 600 t and 144 cavities. Cycle time for light- weight preforms was 5.7 sec. Of even greater importance for the future was the presentation of the HyPET pre- form systems, which were to slowly replace the fully hydraulic G range. 2004 A Husky advertisement announced for the first time that in addition to the standard 300 t and 600 t machines other sizes were available. In issue 9, Netstal talked about their 96-cavity system for 20 g pre- forms with a 9.66 s cycle time. Some of the big names talked about the need for a 196-cavity system in issue 12. Mike Urquhard, at the time at Husky, saw his 144-cavity system as sufficient for big quantities. Otto Hofstetter posed some critical questions concerning the econom- ics of such a system, and Waldemar Schmitke, then at Netstal, presented for the first time the Netstal 196-cavity system, asking whether that would now be the end of the “cavity race”. 2005 Manfred Lausenhammer of MHT said in an interview in issue 1+2 that they had built a 196-cavity tool and reported sales of over eighty tools with 144 cavities. He believed in a market for the 196-cavity system, too. Another machinery manufac- turer appeared on the horizon: Chen Hsong who had been at the 2004 K show edition presented their 48-cavity system in issue 1+2. 2006 Netstal showed their 196-cavity system for the first time at NPE (issue 5).