Dual Parison Blow Molding System Achieves 800 Bottles per Minute
Wilmington Machinery announced the shipment of the first dual parison Small Bottle (SB) rotary extrusion blow molding line. The new MSB40 Dual Parison machine produces 800 bottles per minute, operating at the very fast cycle time of 10 RPM (6 seconds). This machine has 40 stations, 4” extruder and Wilmington’s uniquely designed high-output dual parison diehead. The turnkey system includes molds, bottle conveying and high-speed rotary spin trimmer.
The system is being shipped to South America to produce 80 ml HDPE liquid yogurt bottles. The rotary molder’s 40 stations with dual cavities operate at a 6-second cycle time. Utilizing the SB technology, the molder is simple and efficient to operate as well as very repeatable. It produces weight variation of less than +/- 0.05 grams, yielding excellent material distribution.
“The system is part of our new SB series of rotary blow molding systems,” says Jeff Newman, Wilmington Machinery VP of Sales. “This is the first of several new dual parison models that we plan to build. Also to be built is our model MSB60 DP which will produce 80 ml type bottles at the rate of 1200 bottles per minute, and this is anticipated to be the fastest extrusion blow molding systems in world.”
The SB technology is ideally suited to these very high speed applications since it does not rely on clumsy mold knock out rod systems, cut-off knives or high-maintenance bottle takeout systems under the wheel. The bulk conveying of bottles away from the rotary blow molder is the key to its success. Plus, the streamlined Wilmington Blow Needle design further simplifies the process with only a single pneumatic function, resulting in less moving parts.
The repeatability of the process has exceeded expectations with a total weight variation of only plus/minus 0.05 grams. There is also the added benefit of an extremely small floor space requirement of only 30 x 45 feet, a fraction of the footprint that would be required by multiple shuttle or reciprocating blow molding machines.
In another first, Wilmington Machinery is working with Maer trimmers in Spain to produce their first 800 BPM rotary spin trimmer for single filed bottles. Bottles are delivered to the Maer from a Lanfranchi unscrambler.
The process can easily be scaled up to handle bottles as large as 250 ml (or larger) and speeds in excess of 1200 bottles per minute depending upon the size and weight. This is believed to be the fastest extrusion blow molding system in the world. Ideal bottle applications are food, single serve drinks, juices, teas, sports drinks, energy drinks, dairy/milk and liquid yogurts, just to name a few.