Economical PET machines target custom bottles.

Two new lines of reheat stretch-blow molding machines are aimed at burgeoning markets for custom PET bottles in small to medium volumes. One comes from Taiwan and the other is assembled in Mexico. Both machine lines are said to be economically priced.

U.S. MACHINES FROM MEXICO

Brand-new features are offered on a line of machines recently introduced by American Plastics Technology, Inc. (APT), Schiller Park, Ill. The one-, two-, and four-cavity reheat machines are built primarily from U.S. components and assembled at APT's plant in Mexico.

New features include automatic placement of preforms in the oven with a robotic gripper. The robot also removes bottles from the machine. Also new are mandrels surfaced with stainless steel to keep the preforms cool, and dual blower systems that deliver low-pressure/high-volume air to cool the mandrels and diffuse the oven's heat.

According to APT president Rao Murukurthy, these systems have an easily adjustable preform-stretching system that accommodates bottle sizes up to 2 liters with a maximum 105-mm diam. and 350-mm height. One non-U.S. component is the PLC controller from Mitsubishi of Japan. The preforms travel in the machine in a racetrack path through the ovens, blowing station, and ejection station.

The units are priced at approximately $96,000 for the single-cavity model, $148,000 for dual cavities, and $268,000 for the four-cavity version. Output rates of 2-liter bottles are cited as 750, 1600, and 3000 bottles/hr, respectively.

NEW ENTRY FROM THE FAR EAST

Seven models of ISO 9002-certified reheat blow molders from Chum Power Machinery Corp. of Taiwan are available for the first time in the U.S. from General Equipment & Machinery Co. (also known as GemStar), Miami, Fla. Demonstration models of the Chumpower CPSB series will be installed at GemStar's showroom at the end of the month and will be run there during the Plasticos de las Americas '98 trade show in Miami April 15-17. (The show is cosponsored by PLASTICS TECHNOLOGY and its Latin American affiliate, Tecnologia del Plastico magazine.) The units are priced from $107,000 to $350,000 depending on the number of cavities, says David M. Young, president of GemStar.

Standard units produce bottles from 0.25- to 3-liter size in one to six cavities at rates of 900 to 5400 bottles/hr. Bottles of up to 3 liters can be run in four cavities, 1.5 liters in five cavities, and 0.75 liter in six cavities.

Other features include feeding and discharge robots and fast mold-change capability. The preform-feeding system is automatic and consists of a preform bin, conveyor, and an unscrambler that is fed two preforms at a time by a robot. Inside, preforms travel in a rectangular racetrack path through the ovens to the blowing and ejection stations. Models have clamp forces of 17.6 to 55 tons, and all have blowing-air pressure of 500 psi. The units operate with Mitsubishi PLC devices and use Bosch cylinders.