New "compression blow forming" process to produce containers directly from resin

21-Feb-09

Sacmi, a well-known European plastics processing machine manufacturer, is all set to introduce its new "compression blow forming" (CBF) technology which it claims manufactures plastic containers directly from the resin. This new CBF technology will be unveiled at PETnology Europe, a 2-day fair for international leading companies operating in the food & drink business to be held at in Cologne, Germany from March 9 - 10, 2009. Sacmi claims that CBF works with a wide variety of resins, allowing the production of containers from granule independently from the resin used, HDPE, PS, PET or PP. This is made possible by an innovative transformation process, based on the continuous extrusion of plastic material, subsequently cut into predetermined doses, inserted in an open mould and finally formed into a preform through compression. The preform is thermo regulated in the mould in order to obtain the right temperature for stretch-blowing, and thus allow the container to exit the line in an ordered way. The CBF process, the company says, adds to an increased productivity with a high practicality of use. In addition, the flexibility of use leads to outstanding variability in terms of application from producing classic containers to plastic bottles for the F&B industry to specific bottles used by the pharmaceutical industry. The new process is evolution of two technologies widely used by manufacturers of closure machinery, allowing a transformation of raw material into bottles in a single process. The first one is the continuous compression technology, which Sacmi's Research & Development labs have been researching on and developing for almost 15 years, with the aim of implementing it to the machinery for the production of closures. The second is the one developed by Sacmi in the preform blowing sector for the production of containers.