IML and decoration | Innovation
Above: IML food buckets made by Thailand’s Srithai combine IML and StackTeck’s TRIM light- weighting technology
the moulding material. This can be achieved by selectively applying a special lacquer onto the reverse side of the label. The initial Paccor/Unilever application - a 500g
Right: Stack- teck’s TRIM technology
uses ultra-thin panels in the part to reduce material
consumption
while retaining mechanical performance
polypropylene margarine tub - won the DuPont Packaging Silver Award in 2013 as well as an SPI Emerging Technology award in 2012. Trexel is hoping that more companies will now take advantage of it, but it is being coy about the state of adoption. “We do not comment on our on-going sales efforts and with which customers we are working with,” says Trexel president Steve Braig. “In a nutshell, we are engaged with several interested packaging customers globally.” Another IML prize winner is injection moulded packaging major RPC Superfos. It was awarded a WorldStar from the World Packaging Organization for its custom oxygen barrier packaging for Bornholms’ seafood during Interpack in Düsseldorf in May. The packaging producer says Bornholms, which is a market leader in seafood in Scandi- navia, is converting most of its packaging solutions from cans to plastics boxes, citing the benefits of improved logistics, user-friendliness and shelf life.
RPC Superfos developed a series of four types of packaging, creating an entirely new oxygen barrier solution especially for Bornholms. This features a co-injection moulded container with one oxygen barrier co-injected into its sidewall along with a second oxygen barrier layer in the co-extruded in-mould label. At ambient temperatures, the shelf life is two years, although in the longer term, Bornholms and RPC Superfos expect it to be extended up to three years.
Asian potential Today, addition of an IML system to a production cell entails little or no loss of speed. With the potential for growth in IML in such a large market as Asia so high,
32 INJECTION WORLD | June 2014
technology suppliers exhibiting at Chinaplas earlier this year were out to show what is possible with the technology. Arburg, for example, showed a system producing labelled tubs in a cycle time of only 2.75s. It was based on an 180 tonne Allrounder 570 H fitted with a four-cavity mould from Swiss company Kebo; each tub had a volume of 200 mL and weighed 5g. Andreas Reich, a packaging expert at Arburg, says the very thin walls – just 0.32 mm – gave an L:T ratio of around 300:1. Handling of the labels (from Verstraete) and moulded parts was managed by an IML system from Machines Pagès. At the same show, Engel demonstrated IML of
500-mL food containers (each weighing 11 g) on one of its electric machines, an e-motion 440/160, with a two-cavity mould from another Swiss mould maker, Glaroform. IML automation was supplied by Beck Automation (also of Switzerland) using foils from Viappiani of Italy. Again, cycle times were well under 3s. A similar Engel system running at the Plastpol exhibition in Kielce, Poland, in May, used IML automa- tion from Italian company Campetella.
Starting out While IML technology has developed at a rapid pace, even today the decision to get involved with IML is not one to be taken lightly. “What’s certain is that while IML systems can differ fundamentally in terms of design, a suitable solution can be found for the each particular requirement,” says Antonio Jurado, international sales manager for IML at the Wittmann Group. Jurado says that when setting up
to produce IML parts, many mould- ers find themselves faced with the realisation that instead of being able
to produce umpteen million identical parts, the market is only able to support runs in the six-figure range, or less. “A typical example of this would be paint
buckets. Hardly ever are as many as a million produced in a particular size,” he says. “Obviously, the investment costs for smaller production are going to be proportion- ally higher than for larger ones. For this reason, one of the requirements of such systems, in addition to the high degree of flexibility, is the desire for similarly low investment costs.” Wittmann Battenfeld had a demonstration system on
its stand at K 2013 designed to manufacture an IML- decorated 14-litre PP bucket. The system used a W842 HS top-entry robot, designed for rapid loading of the mould, removal and stacking of finished buckets. The
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