Blow moulders help to cut costs

German packaging machinery specialist Krones has developed a blow moulder that can produce 81,000 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage containers an hour, which are then filled with product and labelled in a single operation. The equipment is already in use in four drinks bottling plants within the US. Another bottler has also ordered two machines.

The latest generation of the Contiform 3 series high-speed stretch blow-moulding machines are designed for containers with a maximum size of 0.75 litres. They make use of a blow-moulding station that operates entirely without lubrication. This is said to reduce by 70% the time needed for manual lubrication of the machine compared to preceding model. It also increases the machine's availability.

All six high-speed stretch blow-moulding machines supplied so far have been integrated into the Krones ErgoBloc L wet-end monobloc. The ErgoBloc L integrates the Contiform 3 small cavity stretch blow-moulding machine for small containers with Contiroll labelling technology featuring a Multireel automatic reel magazine plus fillers from the new Modulfill. This approach, now being used in 50 different projects, is claimed to offer higher efficiencies of operation, which result in costs that are 10% lower than for conventional bottling lines and a 30% smaller footprint.

Contact: Krones