EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 10/22 www.petpla.net 33 Virtually maintenance-free injection moulds z-moulds is known for its excellent product design, long shelf life, low maintenance and flexible use of cavity inserts. PETplanet wanted to know more about the technology and visited Michael Fink, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, at z-moulds at the Dornbirn site in Austria. Tour Sponsors: Many years ago, z-moulds decided on an unusual approach. Each individual cavity with an ejector and cooling element for a moulded cap has its own four slides. This removes the standard slides, the cavities cannot jam even if the plates are not completely aligned with one another which can easily happen if, for example, the cooling system fails. The result is a service life of over 10 years with many millions of cycles without the mould having to be refurbished. Putting it simply, you can compare it to a three- or four-legged chair. The former always stays stable and does not wobble. The z-moulds system is like this in that the mould itself is not damaged even if the plate stucks for any reason when the mould is closed. On the other hand, with a four-legged chair, the floor must always be level and all the legs the same length, meaning that if I put a beer mat under one leg, the chair does not wobble. Similarly, with a standard mould, the slides must always work perfectly with the plates precisely aligned with one another, otherwise the mould will be damaged. Beer mats are not appreciated in the cap mould. The patented system is called z-slides, with a more recent development being the z-slides extended. These extended slides can mould undercuts in the caps up to the total shell height. Thus, the straps on the tethered cap can be moulded such that they almost reach the top of the cap. One example of this is the UCL Tethered Peacock Design Cap. UCL Tethered Peacock Design The normal z-slides and the extended ones fit into the same mould. So with a new cap design, it is no longer necessary to change the mould, only the cavity insert. As it is self-centring, the user can do this on site directly on the machine. The standard 70mm pitch is suitable for nearly all applications. Beside the 70mm pitch there is also a standard for bigger caps with 85mm and 105mm pitch. The Austrians are now working on a smaller pitch given the current trend towards using smaller cap diameters. In the factory itself, there are fully automated processing machines that produce cavities with their format parts which are assembled into moulds at the end of the process. Mould-validating machines from almost all injection-moulding machine manufacturers can be found at the far end of the production area. However, the customer can always bring in their own equipment to try out if they wish so. www.z-moulds.com Mr Michael Fink, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, at z-moulds Ltd. The z-slides cavity stack. You can clearly see the compact design, four slides form the outer contour. The ejector and cooling element are integrated within the cavity.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY0MjI=