10 minute read
Blow Moulding
Blow Moulding Cypet on a good run with PET ISBM
Cyprus-based manufacturer of single-stage injection stretch blow-moulding (ISBM) systems Cypet Technologies pushed ahead with expansion plans, even against the challenging Covid-19 situation. "Although we faced a slowdown in order intake in 2020 due to the negative investment climate caused by the pandemic, we had a strong order book entering the pandemic period, which sustained the operations until orders picked up again,” said Polykarpos (Pol) Panayiotides, Head of Business Development, Far East & ASEAN.
He explained that even during “the difficult Covid period, the company had been hard at work to grow its sales and support team, with dedicated people for Europe, Asia, The Americas, Middle East and Africa.”
He added, “Our global network of agents has also grown and we have plans to expand it further.”
Currently, the company has a global customer base on all five continents, with additional offices and a manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, India.
“Our aim in the next few years is to increase the sales of Cypet machinery and moulds globally,” he says.
Making strides in ISBM with Cypet machines
ISBM is a technology that transforms PET resin directly into finished containers such as bottles, jars, jerrycans, drums and pressurised containers.
The flexibility offered by Cypet’s production machines plus the “very low energy consumption (up to 50%, depending on the bottle that is being produced)” are factors for its popularity.
“Packaging producers can now incorporate handles as one piece with the blown container; can produce containers from tiny 20 ml bottles up to huge 120 l industrial drums and can use their Cypet machine both as a blow moulding system as well as a standard injection moulding machine,” said Pol.
The Cypet process is set apart from conventional singlestage technologies in that it utilises a single clamping unit for opening and closing both the injection and the blow moulds. As a result, instead of using a specially designed machine, the process utilises the clamping unit (and injection unit) of an injection moulding machine base, converting it into a single-stage machine by integrating it with a stretch-blowing unit, a set of moulds and a control system.
The stretch-blowing unit carries out the functions of transferring the preforms from the injection to the blow moulds, blowing them into containers and removing the finished containers.
Furthermore, Cypet offers some machine models that are all-electric, making them especially suitable for medical, pharmaceutical or food contact applications.
PET – recyclability an attraction
The company focuses on PET processing because PET has very good mechanical properties and excellent recyclability. It can be easily separated from other plastics in mixed waste, can be re-used as re-grind or recycled into granules with equal properties as the virgin material, including suitability for food contact. Therefore, it can be recycled repeatedly, making it ideal for use in a circular economy.
When asked if Cypet machines are able to cater to rPET, Pol explains, “Yes, they are able to produce containers with both virgin and rPET. As an example, we had a customer produce a 5 l PET jerrycan with a handle. It is being used to package Ad Blue by Shell in Europe. This is made from 100% rPET, on a Cypet machine.”
Making a difference with a Cypet machine
When asked what sets its machines apart from the competition, Pol explained, “A Cypet ISBM machine works in a different way to competitor ISBM machines. Firstly, the layout of the machine is different: it has a single, horizontal clamping unit. The injection mould is situated vertically below the blow mould and the moulds are laid out at 90 degrees to each other, meaning that the preforms are rotated by 90 degrees when transferred from injection to blow mould.”
The layout of a Cypet machine is different as it has a single, horizontal clamping unit, with the injection mould situated vertically below the blow mould and the moulds laid out at 90 degrees to each other
He also adds that the Cypet machine requires only one set of neck rings rather than three needed on other machines. Thirdly, a Cypet machine uses injection moulds that are similar to two stage preform production - this allows the Cypet machine to be used also as a standard injection moulding machine, if needed.
“Imagine being able to blow your bottle in PET and then switching moulds to produce the HDPE cap for that bottle, all on the same machine. Being able to use your ISBM machine also as an injection moulding machine, de-risks the initial investment and offers a flexibility that does not exist in other ISBM machines on the market.”
Due to the uniqueness of the technology, in that it uses only one clamping unit to open/close both the injection mould and blow mould, while conventional single-stage ISBMs need two separate clamping units (and associated hydraulic pumps, servo motors etc), the investment cost for a Cypet machine is typically 10-30% less than for a conventional single stage ISBM machine, for equivalent output.
“Lower investment cost and lower electricity cost add together to allow our customers to reduce their direct production cost per bottle and hence their ROI,” adds Pol.
New area of productions/new models
Cypet is now moving into the production of large PET containers for bulk storage and transport, which is a new area for PET.
“There is large value to be had by entering such markets with PET containers and we plan to expand the presence of our machinery in the large PET container market,” according to Pol.
Blow Moulding
In 2020, Cypet also introduced its Generation 2.0 machine technology, which is applied to all of its machine models. “The upgraded technology brings numerous benefits, such as increased reliability, increased speed, higher bottle quality repeatability and faster mould change.”
Market accreditation
With all that it has to offer, Cypet’s innovations have been recognised internationally – it won the Cyprus Innovation Award in 2017 and its world-first 120 l PET Drum was a finalist in the global Sustainability Awards in 2019.
Throughout its history, Cypet has also been awarded both local and European grants relating to business innovation, helping the company to accelerate the development of its technologies and products.
“We are customer focused and committed to maximising the value we provide, not only via the products we sell but also with additional bottle development services, 24/7 technical support and commercial support,” furthers Pol.
“Whether you are new in PET container production or an established company looking to lower costs, make new products and enter new markets, or an end user looking to vertically integrate, Cypet can offer solutions that maximise return on investment and keep you ahead of the game in an ever more volatile and competitive world,” he concludes.
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Low/middle molecular weight hydrogenated styrenic block copolymer
by Bear Wang (Marketing supervisor, LCY GRIT Corp.)
Introduction
Hydrogenated styrenic block copolymers (HSBCs) provide excellent weather resistance and lower odour risks compared with un-saturated SBS or SIS. Since HSBCs have good resistance to degradation under UV light exposure, they have good colour stability and can withstand exposure to harsh outdoor environments.
HSBCs are suitable for plastics modification for consumer and industrial applications. Not only can they be used in plastics modification, but they are also widely used in adhesives, such as hot melt adhesives (HMAs) and solvent-based adhesives (SBAs). These block copolymers have good physical properties and are compatible with additives such as tackifiers and processing oils. Taiwanese materials company LCY GRIT’s speciality HSBC grades have good compatibility with additives. They are easily combined with other materials and can be used in many applications. • GP-9552 is a low molecular weight linear triblock polymer with an intermediate level of styrene content. This provides balanced mechanical properties, good compatibility with PO, PP, PE, EVA and is often used in hygiene applications. It is also widely used in coating and sealant applications due to its high strength. • GP-9557D has a lower styrene percentage at 13%, and with 30% diblock content, making it softer and more elastic than conventional HSBC grades. GP-9557D is a high-flow polymer for adhesives, coatings, sealants, film and polymer impact modification. • GP-9526D has a much higher diblock content (70%) and provides excellent flow in adhesive, sealant and coating applications. It also has better adhesive performance, especially excellent wetting property. It can be used for hygiene diaper applications that require high speed production at lower processing temperatures. • GP-8501U is a 100% pure diblock SEP structure designed to provide cohesion performance, special thixotropic characteristics to increase sag resistance and enhance shear-thinning function to many products such as fiber optical cable filling compounds, cosmetic thickeners, sealants, coatings and energy damping. • GP-9901 is a maleic anhydride grafted SEBS with increased polarity for overmoulding compounds and impact modifiers. The effective 1.5% MA grafting ratio results in excellent adhesion to metal or polar substrates, excellent compatibility with engineering plastics to improve low temperature impact strength.
SEBS-g-MAH as compatibiliser could enhance the tensile mechanical properties as well as dynamic mechanical properties.
Polymer HSBC type PSC (%) Diblock content (%) MFI in g/10min at 230℃, 5kg 20% TSV at 25℃ 9552 9557D 9526D 8501U 9901 SEBS SEBS SEBS SEP SEBS-g-MAH 30 13 30 37 30
<1 5 30 20 70
100 >100 <2 <1 >10
440 1500 <100 2500 2000
15% TSV at 25℃ – – – 950 --
Tensile Strength (MPa)* 28 17
Elongation (%)* 500 700
Hardness (Shore A) 77 50 4 2
14.5 300 <100 600 70 64 75
Product form Powder Dense pellet Dense pellet Powder Dense pellet
Styrenic block copolymers (SBCs) have a two-phase structure of hard end-blocks and softer rubber midblocks. The rubber blocks of HSBCs are very compatible with mineral oils. When a triblock HSBC is added to oils at sufficient quantities, the triblock structure causes oils to solidify, which results in flexible, strong, solid oil gels with adhesive properties and tackiness. The midblock segments provide elasticity. The diblock SEB copolymer results in balanced cohesive and adhesive properties.
HSBCs with ethylene/propylene (EP) structures, such as GP-8501U, are used at low concentration levels as thickeners for paraffinic oils to impart shear-thinning behaviour. It can also be added at higher level to lead to thixotropic greases. In this case, the polystyrene end-block segments with extended rubber arms to form micelle-like domains to create the thixotropic properties.
GP-9552, 9557D and 9526D meet the FDA requirements contained in the Code of USA Federal Regulations in 21 CFR 177.1810 (a)(3) and (b)3.
All other ingredients used in the products meet the requirements of their respective FDA regulations of 21 CFR part 174 to 189.
Micelle Two-Phase
HSBC has high thermal stability and can be used over a wide range of temperature starting from -50 to 250°C. HSBC has several advantageous properties like strong shatter resistance, toughness and high transparency. Further, it can be sterilised by gamma irradiation and ethylene oxide. Therefore, SEBS can be used in medical applications.
A blend of HSBC/PP has excellent UV, ozone and chemical resistance and exhibits several advantages over flexible PVC used in medical applications. The greater advantage is that HSBC/PP blends are lighter than most other thermoplastic materials. Those low/middle Mw design SEBS have good compatibility with PP without additional plasticisers, and have lower contamination issues since the plasticisers can be avoided in drug applications.
They have greater temperature stability, which is up to 250°C, where PVC starts degrading at 130°C. They pose no known risk to health and environment while processing and can be easily recycled. PVC, on the other hand, releases hazardous chemicals like dioxins at process temperatures and can be difficult to recycle when blended with other polymers.
Product Stewardship
We confirm that all substances of those products are compliant with the pre-registration or registration required or exempted under REACH (EC 1907/2006), and that we have the actions to proceed with the registration of these substances.
Conclusion
LCY GRIT has developed advanced manufacturing technologies to produce high performance SBC polymers with high precision.
Currently, we offer a broad selection of low/middle molecular weight HSBC product lines for special adhesive, sealant, coating, oil-gel formulations and plastics modification. These products are highly compatible with PO, PP, PE, EVA plastics, and also offer product and process optimisation.
We plan to further develop polymers that provide new solutions in sustainability and efficiency for our customers.
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Products in dense form
