CAPS & CLOSURES | INNOVATION
Getting more from less in caps moulding
Suppliers are showing packaging moulders how to save energy, material, and money in caps and closures
production.Peter Mapleston explores new technology and materials developments
Every year, hundreds of billions of plastics caps and closures are moulded all around the world. Billions of tonnes of thermoplastics, the large part of them polyolefins, go into their production. So increases in manufacturing and design efficiency that can bring about cuts in consumption of materials and energy have the potential to make significant differences to the overall sustainability picture of the sector. Recent developments show equipment and polymer makers are acting to improve the situation.
Energy saving measures At last year’s Drinktec in Munich, Engel claimed to have set a new standard of efficiency in the highly integrated production of beverage caps with a complete injection moulding cell that used much less energy than previous solutions. During the show, under actual production conditions, the cell produced 26mm high density polyethylene (HDPE) caps incorporating tamper-proof bands at a cycle
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time of under 2.5s. Energy consumption for the entire production cell was under 0.7 kWh/kg of HDPE, with just 0.42 kWh/kg taken up by the injection machine. The cell used a 3,800 kN Engel E-Cap 2440/380 unit mounted with a 96-cavity mould from Corva- glia. It included a cap inspection system by IMDvista. Partners for the raw materials were Borealis and Gabriel-Chemie. “Energy efficiency is not the sole parameter if investing in new injection moulding solutions,” Engel points out. “In terms of geometry, beverage caps have reached their light-weighting minimum. This means that the demands on the precision and repeatability of injection moulding machines are higher than ever before. To meet both challenges, Engel is focusing on all-electric high-performance machines for cap production.” The E-Cap series covers clamp forces from 1,100 to 4,200 kN. Servo direct drives ensure the re-
Main image: With new technology from IMDvista, caps are lifted by a stream of air so they can be inspected from above and below without extending processing time
July/August 2018 | INJECTION WORLD 17
PHOTO: ENGEL
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