Agr International, Inc., a leader in the field of PET bottle material distribution management, announces that it is in the process of commercializing the technology for PET bottle crystallinity management and will market it under the trade name CrystalView. According to Georg Wolfe, Agr’s Chief Technical Officer, CrystalView will be incorporated into Agr’s Process Pilot automated blow molder management system and, when released, will provide the means to produce PET bottles with consistent crystalline structure while maintaining desired thickness distribution.
At a recent industry conference, Wolfe provided an update on the progress his team has made over the several months. In his presentation, he detailed the results from extensive studies that his team has done on the relationships that affect the crystalline structure of PET bottles as they are produced, using both hot and chilled mold production process.
Wolfe comments on CSD bottles manufactured using the cold-mold process: “Our experiments showed that improved time-to-stress cracking is a function of the temperature achieved in the stretching process. Time-to-stress crack improved significantly by maximizing orientation in the cold process.”
Wolfe continues: “By optimizing crystallinity/orientation there was no down side. Our findings showed that bottle performance factors either improved or stayed well within the required performance specifications. The CrystalView process provides stronger, better performing containers and enables the bottle producers to further lightweight with minimal risk. The CrystalView product will take advantage of the extensive knowledge base created over the last two years of our research and development effort.”
Data from the experiments (DOE) are the foundation for the sophisticated blow molder control algorithms incorporated into the CrystalView product to actively manage crystallinity within the reheat/stretch-blow process. Wolfe points out that adjusting crystallinity is only part of the equation. The process objective to adjust crystallinity while maintaining proper material distribution is almost impossible without the assistance of technology.
“Agr’s Process Pilot blow molder management system precisely controls and maintains material distribution at a specified thickness to within approximately 0.0025 mm,” Wolfe explains. “When coupled with CrystalView, we will have the capability to fine tune and control the process to optimize crystallinity and maintain material distribution at optimal levels consistently for every bottle in a complete production run.”
This is significant, especially with the push to take lightweighting to the limits. The benefits are considerable. “If you can actively manage crystallinity and at the same time control thickness, you have much greater control over the bottle attributes that affect performance, especially with very light bottles,” concludes Wolfe.
Agr’s Process Pilot automated blow molder control system has been on the market for several years and has amassed a significant global install base of major bottle converters and self-manufacturing brand owners. The Process Pilot product has proven to be a vital tool in the production of lightweight bottles while improving overall bottle performance and quality.
Agr’s Process Pilot automated blow molder control system is unique in that it manages the blow molder based on direct bottle measurements on every bottle produced. By controlling the blow molder based on direct feedback from bottle measurements rather than just blow molder performance indicators, the Agr system can ensure that the final product has the desired quality and performance attributes in spite of environmental, blow molder, or material variations that occur during the production process.
