Netstal

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  Preform production.

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  Capping.

Netstal-Maschinen AG
Founded	1857
Headquarters	Näfels, Switzerland
Parent	Krauss-Maffei
Website	www.netstal.com

Swiss company Netstal is a global supplier of high-precision, high-speed plastic injection moulding machines with clamping forces of 500 to 8000kN. Since 1992, the Netstal brand has been a trademark of the KraussMaffei Group. As part of the KraussMaffei Group, Netstal has been producing injection moulding machines and manufacturing systems for the rapid and high-precision production of thin-walled plastic parts for the packaging industry for many decades.

Netstal's headquarters are located in Näfels in the Canton of Glarus. An area of about 72,000m² houses state-of-the-art production and assembly systems, office spaces for development, design, marketing and administration as well as spacious facilities for customer service, training and application technology.

For the PET sector Netstal offers system solutions for the production of preforms. Apart from PET solutions, the company offers systems for the production of closures for beverages and for the food or non-food areas.

Products / Technology

Preform production systems

Netstal supplies injection molding systems designed for producing preforms for PET bottles. Netstal supplies these machines under the names PET-Line of the Netstal brand and PETForm of the KraussMaffei brand for different output rates.

PET-Line (Netstal)

• 3 platforms with clamping forces of 2400, 4000 and 5000 kN
• Also available in two-component design for Over-molding (Prelactia)
• Injection units tailored for customers applications
• 8–144 cavities
• Digitally controlled clamping unit with 5-point dual toggle lever
• 2-stage high-performance injection units with hybrid technology
• Innovative adaptive drive unit with optimal energy efficiency
• Modular system
• High performance potential
• Robust and reliable design

PETForm (Krauss-Maffei)

• Vertical clamping unit delivers long-term precision. The vertical clamping design ensures extremely high plate parallelism and minimizes wear of molds with up to 112 cavities.
• Immediate post-cooling for shorter cycles With its lock-to-lock time of only 2.0 seconds, the PETForm clamping system is a leading high-performance PET unit. 85% of the required cooling takes place in the separate 4-stage post-cooling station. This results in significantly lowered cycle times and high output performance.
• Optimized removal process – lowered energy consumption Thanks to the lightweight gripper unit, high process speeds can be achieved with minimal clamping movement. This in turn minimizes energy requirements and production costs.
• For 8 to 112 cavities The modular design of the two clamping units with clamping forces of 1,750 kN and 3,500 kN, combined with corresponding plasticizing units, make this the optimum system for any application scenario.
• Special screw geometries for rapid melting.
• Color pigments, blockers or other blends can be added homogeneously at high throughput's without subjecting the melt to unnecessary shear forces.
• Compact

Applications

• Custom preforms such as wide-neck and pharmaceutical performs: Vertical technology used in machines from the PETForm series offers clear advantages in the production of custom preforms such as wide-neck and pharmaceutical preforms. In PETForm systems, these are removed in exactly the same way as standard preforms. Additional devices for the demolding of custom preforms are thus rendered redundant and costly system modifications are unnecessary
• Standard preforms for beverage packaging. Around 80% of PET packaging is used for carbonated soft drinks (CSD), still water and juices in the beverage industry worldwide. The Netstal platform strategy for PET production systems is targeted to meet a diverse range of complex market requirements.
• Hot-fill preforms
• Special preforms: These are either designed with a thickened neck area or undergo a special solidification process, which eliminates the risk of neck deformation resulting from the increased process temperature. Netstal offers hotfill perform systems with an optimized screw design and specialized plasticizing process
• PLA preforms

Closure production systems

Wide range of machines for closure applications. The current product range is suited to moulds for closure applications. This is highlighted by the following standard closures, e.g. PCO 1881 or 29/25, as follows:

• Evos series: for applications using 64- to 128-cavity moulds
• Elion series: for applications using 24- to 96-cavity moulds

Applications

• Beverages
• Food
• Non-Food
• System Solutions

History

Netstal dates back to the year 1857, in which the Maschinenfabrik, Eisen- & Messinggiesserei Ulrich Rietmann & Cie in Netstal/Switzerland was founded. In 1945, Netstal sold its first injection molding machine and a few years later, construction of the plant in Näfels, the location of the current headquarters, began. The company expanded steadily in the following decades and was responsible for multiple injection molding technology milestones. 1992, KrausMaffei acquired a majority stake in Netstal-Maschinen AG. Find additional information on the company's development here.

References

PETplanet Insider Articles

Issue 05 / 2016: More capacity for specialised preforms
Issue 04 / 2016: Preform production: Injection moulding with preforms - does it always have to be this was?
Issue 03 / 2016: Trade show preview: High output rates
Issue 01 / 2016: ChemChina to acquire KraussMaffei Group
Issue 11 / 2015: Efficient barrier, high productivity
Issue 10 / 2015: Reto Bamert appointed head of PET business unit at Netstal
Issue 05 / 2015: Netsal introduces 144 cavity preform system to the US
Issue 03 / 2015: Thin-wall drinking vessels
Issue 03 / 2015: One division, two product groups
Issue 01 / 2015: Netstal completes PET-Line family on a high
Issue 12 / 2014: PET planet Award 2014
Issue 08 / 2014: Efficiently energetic
Issue 06 / 2014: Krauss Maffei do Brazil Ltda.
Issue 05 / 2014: KraussMaffei Group driving company growth in China
Issue 04 / 2014: New closure machinery
Issue 09 / 2013: Hybrid drive concept for cap manufacture
Issue 07 / 2013: New PET lines
Issue 06 / 2013: Netstal: 25 PET sytems supplied last year
Issue 03 / 2013: Russia Part 3 – Moscow and its environs: Netstal

External links

Netstal Website