LIVE FROM INTERPHEX 2012: Interphex Show Coverage Day 1

Compression Blow Forming, a new break-through technology platform for production of rigid pharmaceutical containers, was announced today ( May 1, 2012) at Interphex in New York City. The announcement came in a joint press conference with Amcor Rigid Plastics and Italy's SACMI Group.

Today marks the commercialization of the industry's first Compression Blow Forming (CBF) machine for the production of rigid HDPE pharmaceutical bottles. Combining both compression molding and blow molding, this new process offers enhanced quality, energy and heat savings, and potential for lightweighting due to very uniform distribution of resin shot, unlike injection molding. Future molds could offer potential lightweighting benefits.

In CBF material is extruded, cut, and transferred into a compression cavity. A preform is produced and the pre-blow and full-blow process is completed in the same mold station, with no transfer of the preform. CBF, which takes place on a 12-station rotary platform, eliminates manifolds which results in higher quality bottles, with less particulate contamination and less chance for resin burn or degradation. Sacmi is producing a 20 station machine as well.

CBF's continuous rotary motion eliminates station-to-station indexing time, reducing idle time, and uses lower process temperatures, and features fully integrated inline quality inspection, including infrared vision to detect dimensional variations and contamination, leak testing immediately after each bottle is blown, and plasma surface treatment.

Individual cavity molds make changeover for size (currently 60 to 300 cc) and resin color faster. Along with pharmaceutical applications, where high quality is demanded, Amcor and Sacmi see strong potential for CBF in other markets, including single-serve dairy. Sacmi is said to be working on a variation of the machine that will be able to change over to PET, PP and HDPE.