Innovative technologies for beverage packaging at NPE 2015 includes revolutionary self-cleaning mold technology

A one push-button mold cleaning in eight seconds instead of four hours, and ten times fewer cleaning interventions on a machine: Husky Injection Molding Systems announced that at NPE 2015, it will provide live demonstrations of its revolutionary new self-cleaning mold technology for the HyPET(R) HPP5 preform manufacturing system. The new mold feature is part of the reduced maintenance package for the HyPET® HPP5 system and can extend cleaning and greasing requirements to approximately every 500,000 cycles. This represents a dramatic improvement over conventional technology in the industry. “With cycle times getting faster, one could expect shorter maintenance intervals, more maintenance, and shorter mold life. Instead, HyPET® HPP5 overcomes the contradiction between cycle time and mold maintenance. Self-cleaning can eliminate up to 400 hours of maintenance time per year, which results in 5% more production time,” said Nicolas Rivollet, Husky’s Director of Business Development. Self-cleaning is a push-button that uses controlled flash of the tool to collect and remove dust built up in the vents. Completely automated, totally reliable, and consistent, self-cleaning does not require an operator to go inside the machine, and can be performed as often as needed as there is virtually zero time penalty on production. The system at NPE will also be equipped with Husky’s enhanced mold alignment technology that enables time to first refurbishment to be extended three times, while improving cycle times and part quality. Using six sensors to detect the position of the core plate with respect to the cavity plate, the HyPET® HPP5 mold alignment is a real-time, 3D measurement of the alignment displayed as constant feedback on the HMI. If misalignment occurs, the HMI provides specific instructions to resolve it. By simply turning a positioning device, the operator can re-align the tool with a resolution of a few microns, before the offset can cause excessive wear and impact quality. Since its launch in late 2013, the HyPET® HPP5 system has had a very strong response from customers. In a short sixteen months the company has sold over seventy systems, with nearly forty installed and producing high quality preforms in customer facilities across the globe. The HyPET® HPP5 system at NPE will run a lightweight carbonated water preform application with a 10.89 gram part weight on a 96cav 50x140 pitch mold at a very aggressive 5.5 second cycle time. With this preform, HyPET® HPP5 is approximately 50% faster than the industry averages for the same type of applications. “We continue to make significant investments to better understand the production issues our customers face so that we can offer new technologies to respond to these challenges. This is what we will demonstrate at NPE 2015,” said Robert Domodossola, Vice President of Engineering and Business Development at Husky. “With our latest innovations we have paid particular attention to improving availability, as producing better parts at a lower cost for longer production intervals ensures customers can be more competitive.”