The stretch blow moulding process has now become established in the production of high-quality PET bottles. Against the background of climate change and the ever-greater scarcity of resources worldwide, the focus of business and public interest is increasingly moving towards acting in a sustainable manner. Experts from different points along the stretch blow moulding process chain have thus come together, within the framework of a research project, in a bid to increase the energy and resource efficiency of PET bottle production on a sustainable basis.
The investigations are focused on a detailed energy balance of the stretch blow moulding process, from which methods are derived for assessing the efficiency of industrial stretch blow moulding machines and components. Employing these methods, different approaches are being adopted to increasing the energy efficiency of the heating process and to increasing the resource and energy efficiency of the forming operation.
One of the partners is stretch blow moulding machine manufacturer KHS Corpoplast, Hamburg, and the company is channelling its extensive know-how on process engineering, mechanical engineering, material properties and bottle design into the project. Working together with AdPhos Innovative Technologies, Bruckmühl-Heufeld, a company specialised in thermal processes, approaches are being worked out to improving energy efficiency. The findings obtained then go to Okertaler Mineralbrunnen, Goslar (Weydringer Group), to be supplemented from the application-technology angle. The results are subsequently implemented on an industrial stretch blow moulding machine at this company, which produces alcohol-free beverages, and evaluated in energy terms.
Responsibility for coordinating the research activities and providing scientific supervision lies with the Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University. The IKV is also supporting the project through the consistent simulation of all the different process stages.
This research and development project, which is especially tailored to small and medium-sized companies, is being financed with funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the research programme on SME-innovative production research and is being supervised by the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (PTKA) which is running the project.
The new stretch blow molding machine by KHS Corpoplast: InnoPET Blomax Serie IV
(Photo: KHS Corpoplast)
| Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung (IKV) an der RWTH Aachen Dipl.-Ing. Thorsten Leopold Extrusionsblasformen Tel. +49 241 80-28348 Fax +49 241 80-22316 leopold@ikv.rwth-aachen.de |
