MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 06/22 www.petpla.net 11 are helping customers to reduce air consumption to as low as 16-20 bar. There are many mould makers worldwide, but few can propose a blowing operation solution that uses compressed air efficiently. The energy consumption of high-pressure compression rooms is undoubtedly one of the highest in any beverage production plant. The technique applied in our BaseMax moulds improves the energy efficiency of the blowing system. A BaseMax mould versus a conventional mould from any manufacturer is like comparing an LED light bulb to an old-fashioned incandescent bulb. There is a tendency to think that reducing the blowing pressure to be more efficient in energy terms also implies significant changes in the generation of high-pressure air. In the case of a pressure reduction project, it will be necessary to make changes to the compression equipment, but the first step is optimising demand to change that old incandescent bulb for a LED before rearranging the generation matrix. We use this simple example when a client wants to know about our technology in the first meeting. Ultra low-pressure blow moulds allow us to take that first fundamental step to reduce massic air consumption. Only after reducing the blowing pressure to target values and stabilising a new process standard can you move forward to change the piping network or the compressors themselves. Without improving demand, the question of generation cannot be addressed. Even when you keep the compressors at high pressure for an HR PET line, you will be able to save air on your NR PET lines with BaseMax moulds. Some compressors will stop entirely due to the less massic consumption of those NR moulds. The savings can be captured immediately and are cumulative as the existing compressors will continue to deliver the massicflow they were designed for. The blowers will require fewer kilograms of air to blow the same quantity of bottles per hour. Each new or converted set, because BaseMax could be a retrofit of existing moulds even from other manufacturers, and will use less air. The excedent in the ring-type installation will be used in the next blower, thus leading the compressor to change state sooner. PETplanet: For what formats do you recommend optimisation most urgently? Pucci: Moldintec offers its customers a calculator to fill in with data on their compressors, bottles, blowing speed, and current-target pressure to obtain financial information for decision making. Not all formats need to be optimised, or, at least, not in the project’s first phase. It is common to think that the first bottle to optimise is the bigger one. But it is also essential to consider the blowing speed, and the number of bottles produced per month or year. Optimising a mould that works a few days per month does not make sense. The technology involved in the process of blowing a PET preform is exciting. The balance of thermal and mechanical energies combined with a high-performance mould makes a huge difference. We still see plants, even in Europe, blowing at 32 bar. The opportunities to save money, but above all, to reduce the carbon footprint are still huge. PETplanet: What ‘design for recycling’ aspects currently influence the design of stretch blow-moulds? Pucci: From a packaging design point of view, less is more. The technology that we developed for NoLabel, without a doubt, proposes a complete prepared packaging for recycling. Also, fewer grams of PET will have a positive impact on the environment. During 2020, we spent the isolation time completely redesigning our core engineering platform. As a result, we achieved a 20% reduction in the use of raw materials and much lighter moulds for the new high-speed blowers. Again, less is more, fewer materials to recycle at the end of the mould life cycle. The concept “made for recycling” is multidimensional for us. We think laterally and challenge our clients to give a second life to their assets in disuse due to obsolescence of the product before sending it to the recycling bin. Our ReShape program proposes re-machining the moulds to give them a new life on a new product. It also reduces the time to market to just one week, with minimal investment because if the mould was in operation before, it also means that all the bespoke tooling is available. PETplanet: For the label-free bottle that you made with Danone and Val Group you have already won several prizes, including the World Packaging Award. There must have been quite some challenges to overcome before it was ready? Pucci: That project was highly challenging and fulfilling for our team. There were many development loops to optimise the design of the bottle and the readability of the customer information. The creation of the iconic assets proposed by Danone required profound technical changes in engineering as Moldintec applied the laser machining techniques in the moulds. Today, that experience has resulted in technical changes in the mould venting systems created by the laser when we emboss or deboss the characters. We’ve also reached high readability for customer information on the CSD bottles. A fully readable nutrition facts table under the high internal pressure is now possible, even with a non-crystalline liquid. PETplanet: So all the consumer information that is normally printed on the label can all be found engraved in the bottle now? Pucci: The answer is constantly changing. Since 2017, when we showed the first bottle with the product brand engraved on the PET skin, the SRA teams have now developed ways of conveying legal requirements with the same level of innovation as the NoLabel project itself. But first, we always look for them to be on the surface of the same bottle and for it to be legible.
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