At Plast 2000 (Milan, May 8 to 13, 2000) Krupp Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH, Bonn-Holzlar, and Krupp Corpoplast GmbH, Hamburg, will present an overview over blow molding technologies at their joint stand B02/C01 in hall 20. The Ecomax 10/2 will be the centerpiece of their exhibits - a stretch blow molding machine which combines the know-how of both companies and produces a variety of different PET bottles using Krupp´s special integrated one-stage technology. It consists of an injection molding module with a 10-cavity mold for preforms and a 2-cavity blow molding station with infrared heating. The cavity ratio of 5:1 could only be achieved by optimum utilization of the cycle times of the injection and stretch blow molding processes. It is decisive for the high productivity of the system.

The system shown at Plast 2000, where it will produce bottles, has a heating section with a new high-performance "Preferential Heating" unit. This unit, installed in front of the stretch blow molding unit, allows opposite sections of the preforms to be selectively heated to different temperatures in order to form oval bottles with the best possible wall thickness distribution and the lowest weight. Thanks to this fast-reacting system, the Ecomax 10/2 now reaches a production capacity of up to 2,400 bottles per hour - even when producing bottles with complex geometries.

The one-stage system is designed for high flexibility. Only few parts need to be exchanged when changing to a new product. Thanks to the highly accurate fit of the parts there is no time-consuming adjustment. All parameter settings are stored in the controller and can be retrieved individually. Typical changeover times are:

･ 5 minutes if only the bottle design changes and height and weight remain the same,
･ 20 to 30 minutes when changing to a different bottle molded from the same preform or when the weight is altered by changing the core,
･ 5 hours for a complete conversion of the system, for example from a 250 ml to a 2.0 liter bottle.

The Ecomax 10/2 thus covers two very different market segments: Krupp Kautex offers it for the production of bottles with customer-specific designs, for example for edible oil, detergents, body lotions and other liquid and paste-like products for household and industrial uses, whereas Krupp Corpoplast offers the one-stage system for the production of beverage bottles of all types. Typical examples are bottles with customer-specific geometries for refreshing drinks, mineral and table water, alcoholic beverages or juice. In both segments the Ecomax 10/2 offers profitable advantages to bottling plants with a highly diversified programme and the corresponding multitude of bottle geometries as well as to manufacturers who produce a wide range of bottles of different size and type for their customers and thus need to work within very narrow timeframes.