In preform manufacturing, power supply outages reduce system availability levels and have a negative impact on unit costs. In the form of its new CPP option, for challenging industrial situations Netstal is offering a practical solution for its PET-LINE that can be amortized within a very short period and reliably ensures maximum system availability.
Controlled production shutdown during a power outage
CPP stands for 'Controlled Production shutdown during a Power outage. "Our new solution increases the robustness of the PET-LINE system during brief power outages and reliably prevents the occurrence of short shots," said Stefan Kleinfeld, Product and Application manager at Netstal. In the case of momentary power failures, the system will provide enough power to continue operation of the current cycle. If the outage lasts somewhat longer, then sufficient power is provided to reliably and controllably shut down the cycle. Preforms are fully injected and demolded, meaning short shorts do not arise. Meterage for the next shot is stopped and the entire system is controllably brought to a halt. "All axes are returned securely to their end position. As soon as the power returns, production can be simply started up again," explained Kleinfeld. CPP is now available as a sales option for all new Netstal PET-LINE systems.
Reliable bridging of brief power failures and fluctuations
"The new CPP option is an addition that is particularly cost-effective in harsh industrial environments. Even brief power failures or fluctuations in the grid lasting milliseconds can represent a considerable cost risk for manufacturers," said Kleinfeld. With the CPP option, the system is simply more robust because the machine continues to operate and doesn't shut down during brief power fluctuations. Contrastingly, without the CPP option the current cycle would be abruptly and uncontrollably interrupted in the case of a power failure. In all probability, production could then not be restarted immediately because of the potential presence of short shots in individual or all the mold cavities. The time consuming removal of these short shots involves laborious manual work. Consequently the system comes to an unscheduled standstill. On top of this, molds could also potentially be inadvertently damaged during the cleaning up process. CPP reliably removes this risk. The availability of the system is significantly increased, meaning that investment in this option is recouped after only a few power outages. "Depending on the production site, our CPP solution reliably ensures maximum productivity and minimum unit costs," concluded Kleinfeld, emphasizing the new solution's principle customer benefits.
