Technical and commercial considerations p. 1 Introduction p. 1 General considerations p. 1 Rigid containers p. 1 Caps, lids, closures and devices p. 2 Blow-moulded containers p. 2 Flexible packaging p. 4 Technologies to complement material developments p. 4 Machinery p. 4 Robotics p. 4 Amalgamation and integration in the machinery industry p. 5 Co-extrusion, co-injection and multi-centre moulding p. 5 Handling plastics containers p. 5 Lightweighting p. 5 Closing plastics packaging p. 6 Cost and complexity reduction issues p. 6 Conclusions p. 7 Injection moulding p. 8 Introduction p. 8 Machines p. 8 The moulding process p. 10 Materials p. 12 Polypropylene p. 12 PET p. 12 Multicavity moulding p. 13 Multilayer moulding p. 14 Packaging products p. 16 Inspection methods p. 18 Design p. 18 Foaming technology p. 19 In-mould labeling (IML) p. 20 Decoration and finishing techniques p. 21 The future p. 22 Appendix: trouble-shooting p. 23 Acknowledgements p. 24 Extrusion blow-moulding p. 25 Introduction p. 25 Variations on a theme p. 25 Continuous extrusion blow-moulding p. 25 Continuous extrusion accumulator blow-moulding p. 25 Co-extrusion blow-moulding p. 26
Extrusion stretch blow-moulding p. 26 Injection blow-moulding p. 27 Injection stretch blow-moulding p. 27 Materials p. 27 Plastic materials used in blow-moulding p. 27 Plastics consumption in blow-moulding p. 28 Blow-moulding plastics properties p. 30 Extrusion blow-moulding technology p. 30 Extruder screws and barrels p. 30 Extrusion heads p. 33 Parison cutting p. 35 Parison control p. 36 Machine movements and construction p. 38 Machine control systems p. 40 Calibration and component inflation blowing p. 40 Blow-moulds p. 41 Automation p. 45 Injection blow-moulding p. 45 Materials and products p. 47 The injection blow-moulding process p. 47 Comparison of injection blow-moulding and extrusion blow-moulding p. 48 Co-extrusion p. 49 Scrap encapsulation p. 49 High-technology co-extrusion p. 50 Co-extrusion end uses p. 51 Conclusion p. 52 Injection blow-moulding p. 53 Process identification p. 53 Basic principles p. 54 History p. 55 Commercial processes p. 55 Rotary table machines p. 56 Tooling p. 57 Procrea p. 58 Materials processed on IB p. 59 Typical products on IB p. 59 Machine and process capabilities p. 61 One-stage injection stretch blow-moulding p. 66 Introduction p. 66 PET Materials p. 71 Key properties p. 71
Drying p. 72 Requirements for a reliable drying system p. 72 Process monitoring p. 73 PET bottle and preform design p. 74 Design and material properties p. 74 Container design considerations p. 75 Preform design p. 76 Integrated two-stage machines p. 81 One-stage machine construction p. 82 Mould components and major processing factors on a classic four-station one-stage machine p. 86 Hot-fill PET bottles p. 88 Quality control procedures p. 91 Preform p. 91 Container p. 94 Additional tests for pressurised containers p. 98 Additional tests for hot-fill containers p. 100 Additional tests for returnable/refillable PET bottles p. 100 Two-stage injection stretch blow-moulding p. 102 Introduction p. 102 The principles of the two-stage process p. 102 Technological PET material characteristics p. 103 Other plastic materials p. 107 Preform manufacturing p. 108 The process and its parameters p. 108 Injection moulding machine p. 108 Resin drying p. 110 Plasticising p. 110 Mould p. 110 Injection gates p. 110 Cavities p. 112 Injection p. 113 Melt distribution p. 113 Post cooling p. 114 Auxiliary equipment p. 115 Preform and production quality p. 115 Bottle Manufacturing p. 116 The process and its parameters p. 116 Preform re-heating p. 119 Stretch blow-moulding equipment p. 123 Mould technology p. 127 Auxiliary equipment p. 128
Line equipment p. 128 Two-stage vs single-stage process/equipment p. 129 Container quality p. 130 Dimensional stability p. 130 Functional quality p. 131 Container and preform design principles p. 133 Container design p. 133 Preform design p. 138 Suppliers p. 142 References p. 144 Abbreviations p. 144 Thermoforming technologies for the manufacture of rigid plastics packaging p. 146 Introduction p. 146 Sheet extrusion p. 147 Heating the sheet p. 149 Equipment and the moulding process p. 150 Materials p. 153 Introduction p. 153 Polystyrene (PS) p. 153 Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) p. 154 High-density polyethylene (HDPE) p. 155 Polypropylene (PP) p. 155 Amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (APET) p. 156 Crystalline polyethylene terephthalate (CPET) p. 156 Applications p. 157 Conclusion p. 157 Acknowledgements p. 159 References p. 159 Blown film p. 160 Introduction p. 160 A brief history p. 160 Why blown film? p. 160 Blow film extrusion technology p. 161 Blending p. 161 Extrusion p. 164 Blown film die design p. 170 Blown film cooling p. 176 Automatic thickness control p. 178 Bubble stabilisation p. 179 Bubble collapsing p. 180 Primary haul-off systems p. 182
Web handling p. 183 Slitting and winding p. 184 Control systems p. 186 Acknowledgements p. 188 References p. 188 Filling, labelling and handleability of plastic containers p. 189 Introduction p. 189 The source of the container supply p. 190 Supplying containers to the packing line p. 191 Remote container manufacturing p. 191 In-house container manufacture p. 197 The filling/packing line p. 199 The first machine in the line p. 199 Container cleaning p. 201 Container pre-labelling p. 202 Container orientation p. 203 Product filling p. 205 Level filling p. 206 Filling by volume p. 212 Filling by weight p. 214 Handling of plastic containers through the filling machine p. 214 Container capping/closing p. 216 Cap/closure types p. 217 Closure application p. 218 Method of cap transfer p. 219 Handling of containers through the capping machine p. 220 Closure torque control p. 220 Container decoration p. 222 Labelling machines p. 222 Handling of containers through the labelling machine p. 223 The importance of label adhesion p. 225 Sleeving p. 227 End of line packaging p. 229 Main types of packaging formats p. 229 Container laning p. 231 Palletising p. 234 Container conveying and layout considerations p. 236 Conveying of empty containers p. 237 Bloc and Superbloc units p. 240 Conveying of filled containers p. 241 Pack conveying p. 244
Plastic closures used in the consumer packaging market p. 245 Introduction p. 245 Closure systems p. 245 Different types of containers p. 245 Key features and functions of a closure p. 248 Typical plastics materials used for closures p. 251 Polyethylene (PE) p. 251 Polypropylene (PP) p. 252 Polystyrene (PS) p. 252 Technical polymers p. 253 Barrier polymers p. 253 Different technologies for the production of plastic closures p. 254 Injection moulding p. 254 Compression moulding p. 254 Thermoforming p. 254 New trends in the closure industry p. 254 Co-injection and multi-centre moulding for bi-colour or multi-material products p. 255 Barrier technologies used for plastic closures p. 255 List of Polymers p. 256 Index p. 257 Table of Contents provided by Blackwell's Book Services and R.R. Bowker. Used with permission.