Aoki

Aoki Technical Laboratory, Inc.
Founded	1976
Headquarters	Hanishina-gun, Nagano-ken, Japan
Key people	Shigeto Aoki, Chairman Shuichi Koshi, President
Website	www.aokitech.co.jp

Aoki Technical Laboratory, Inc., Japan is specialised in planning, developing and manufacture of injection stretch-blow moulding machines, moulds, auxiliary equipment and parts for moulding plastic bottles.

Applications

• Container lightweighting and thinwalling technologies: Combining advanced technological development capabilities Direct Heatcon moulding technology: Blow technology designed to lighten the neck section, solutions to off-centering when molding ultra-thin oval bottles, and technologies for moulding containers with walls of even thickness and for countering vacuum deformation in wide mouth containers, enable the moulding of high added value containers. Lightweighting through the use of neck section blow technologies and other means also enables the moulding cycle to be shortened.

• Moulding technologies for different plastics: Heat resistance, airtightness, chemical resistance, strength and impact resistance are just some of the increasing diversity of functions and characteristics required of containers. Stable container moulding is now possible with plastics such as PET, PC, PP, HDPE, HIPS, PEN, PE and PA that have varying characteristics.

• Moulding Technologies for Specific Container Shapes and Sizes: E.g.:

- Oval container moulding technology - Off-center container moulding technology - Small containers - Thin-walled container moulding - Thick-walled container moulding - Grip containers - Handle containers - Long neck bottles

• Moulding technologies for 100% rPET: The AOKI eco project is a used PET bottle recycling system. The project enables 100% recycled PET flakes from washed and shredded used PET bottles to be used directly to produce new PET bottles. AOKI Series moulding machines are able to mould very high quality containers from 100% recycled PET flake material.

History

1975 Four-station injection stretch-blow moulding machine developed

1976 Aoki Technical Laboratory, Inc. founded

1980 Four-station injection stretch-blow moulding machine awarded Plastics Grand Prize

1984 Three-station injection stretch-blow moulding machine developed / Direct Heatcon injection stretch-blow moulding technology developed

1987 Japan Synthetic Plastic Technical Association Prize awarded in recognition of development of transparent PP injection stretch-blow moulding technology

1988 American SPE prize awarded for outstanding achievements in blow moulding. Founder Katashi Aoki passes away. Shigeto Aoki appointed President

1990 New head office/factory completed, and first factory extension / Aoki Manufacturing Co., Ltd. merged into Aoki Technical Laboratory, Inc. with capital of 11 million yen. Worldwide promotion of Direct Heatcon injection stretch-blow moulding technology

1992 Development of molding technology for edible oil, juice and other containers with handles attached in a post-moulding process

1993 Second factory extension (office) - Development of A-PET material moulding technology

1995 AOKI-250LL-50 machine showcased at PAKEX'95, wins the Best Machine of the Show award

1997 Total number of shipped machines reaches 1,000

1999 Development of technology for moulding 5L / 5kg integrated handle containers / Development of technology for moulding eye-drop container with neck internal diameter of 5.5mm

2000 25th anniversary - SBⅢ-350LL-40 and SBⅢ-500LL-75 converted to high cycle / Development of off-center bottle (motor oil etc.) moulding technology

2001 SBⅢ-350LL-100 converted to high cycle

2002 SBⅢ-500-150 converted to high cycle / Increasing moulding tests on baby bottles made of PPSU, PA, PES, PP, PEN, PCO and other PC substitutes owing to growing worldwide concern over bisphenol A health risks

2003 Development of ultra-thin wall moulding technology for molding 750mL refill container (750mL Ugly Duckling)

2004 SBⅢ-100L-20 and SBⅢ-250P-50L converted to high cycle

2005 Development of ultra-thick wall moulding technology using PETG, PCTA, and PCTG etc. / Development of ultra-thin wall molding technology for molding 1L refill container (1L Ugly Duckling) / Molding of ultra-thick water bottle from Tritan

2006 AOKI-350LL-100 converted to high cycle / Development of ultra-thin wall moulding technology for molding 1.5L refill container (1.5L Ugly Duckling)

2007 Development of technology for moulding Ugly Duckling pouch container (aka Columbus' Egg)

2009 Aoki hybrid concept (optimization of electric, hydraulic and pneumatic)

2013 Shigeto Aoki appointed Chairman / Shuichi Koshi appointed President

2015 40th anniversary - Initiatives for ongoing process improvement

References

PETplanet Insider Articles

Issue 05 / 2015: Special custom blow moulderl

External links

Aoki Website