Training Manual

For beginners

By Tony Wu
2013 Aug 14
Preface:
I went into Chumpower without any experience in PET. The learning process
for me was not very well structured and coordinated, however I continuing on this
path for years, and then realized that experiences from servicing and commissioning
the machine are my greatest knowledge source as a PET machinery technician. I
would like now to share what I have learned, and hope it might be helpful for
someone who is new to PET world or Chumpower.

Tony Wu

Training manual P. 1
Table of content:

1. An example of water-bottling plant

2. Types of blow molding process

3. PET introduction

4. The blowing process

Training manual P. 2
CHAPTER 1

An example of water-bottling plant

Training manual P. 3
 An example of a water-bottling line:

Silo

Preform Injection machine Dehumidifier Resin

PET bottle PET SBM machine Gaylord dumper

Labeling machine Blow dry & date printing Filling & capping machine

Palletizer & shrink wrap machine Heat shrink packaging Heat shrink tunnel

Training manual P. 4
The previous page showed the typical water-bottling line that a technician might
encountered. As you can see, Chumpower’s machine plays an important role within
the entire process, since we are at the front end, any mechanical problem or
machine failure can cause inconvenience or loss of productivity for our customers.

The followings are brief descriptions for each step.

Step 1: Silo
PET container starts with resin, which is part of many spin-off products from oil
refinery process. Resin usually shipped to the factory by a transportation truck.
Factory with large processing capability use vacuum loading system directly suck the
resins from the truck tank to the silo. Factory with low to median processing
volume might not have a silo, and have the resins shipped in sacks. These sacks are
then moved to a location nearby the dehumidifier.

Step 2: Dehumidifier
Resins are good moisture absorbing materials, therefore are required to be
dried in a dehumidifier for minimum of 4 hours at 88 oC before going to the injection
machine.

Step 3: Injection machine

Injection machine sucks the dried resin into the hopper and heats them in the
temperature-controlled-zone barrel to 282 oC. Once ready, the injection machine
will inject the molten resin into the mold. The mold is cooled by chilled water to
help cooling down the preform before releasing it from the mold. The fresh-shot
preforms are collected and stored in a dry place for one week to slowly release its’
internal stress (for better bottle dimension stability at later stage) before it can be
used by the blow molding machine.

Step 4: Gaylord dumper

Some factories used a Gaylord dumper to load preforms into the blow molding
machine’s hopper. Usually this is required for CP’s linear series machines due to
high processing speed. Otherwise the end user will experience interrupted
processing session due to frequent hopper loading of preforms.
Others stored their preforms in boxes, and then dump preforms into PET
machine’s hopper manually when needed. This is OK for CP’s phoenix series
machines since they do not consume preforms that fast.

Training manual P. 5
Step 5: PET machine
PET blow molding machine takes the preforms, heat them up to temperatures
just below 90 oC, and insert them to a mold following by stretch and blow process to
form bottles. Processed bottles are then carried out of machine via a build-in air
conveyor to downstream system. Phoenix series machine has cycle time of 3.0s
whereas linear machine has cycle time of 2.4s. At the time of writing, SBM industry
is leaning towards high speed machine that processed light weight bottles (9-10g
preforms for 500-600cc) with direct in-line filling, also known as B-F-C (bottle, filling,
and capping) system or combi machine.

Step 6: Filling & capping machine

The bottles produced from PET machine feeds directly to the filling line by either
air conveyor or through the bottle sorter. The typical filling machine has three
rotary wheels each serves its’ own purpose.
The first wheel is responsible for washing the bottles by reverting them to an
upside-down position and sprays water into them. Waste water drained from
bottles quickly by gravity, after that bottles are reverted back to the original up-right
position before entering the second wheel.
The second wheel has many filling nozzles which filled the bottles with the
processed product. The number of filling station/nozzle depends on the targeted
production volume. The typical small-to-medium size filling machine has 20-60
filling stations on them.
Once bottles are filled, they are going through the last wheel with
corresponding capping system over it. The wheel secured the bottles while cappers
each take a cap by vacuum, and puts it on the bottle. The self-rotating cappers will
then tighten the cap onto the bottle.
The usual filler output ranges from 300 to 350 bottles/min (18000-21000 BPH).

Step 7: Blow dry & date printing

Filled bottles are aligned on the conveyor in a single profile manner. A blower
is fitted to lift the residual fluid from the bottles surface. The reason is that any
residual fluid on bottle surface will cause the label to stick on other part of the bottle
instead of desired labeling position. Therefore slick and condensation-free bottle
surface ensured a smooth and accurate labeling process.
A printing machine’s purpose is to print the filling time-stamp on either the
bottle or cap surface to ensure consumer safety.

Training manual P. 6
Step 8: Labeling machine
Labeling machine can be divided into OPP or Sleeve labeler. Since each works
with different type of material, the downstream equipment will also be different
depends on the choice of the labeling machine.
The OPP stands for Oriented Poly-Propylene, a polymer that is used to make a
roll of thin film for printing commercial graphics on it. The OPP labeler operates in
rotational manner. It cuts the label to size, applies glue and rolls the bottle to pick
up the label and wraps it around bottle’s outer circumference surface to complete
the labeling process. If a production line uses OPP labeler, shrinking tunnel will not
be used in the downstream process.
The sleeve labeler use heat-shrink material as label. The bottles are first
aligned in single line manner, and then as the bottles pass through, the labeler shoots
the heat shrink sleeve over it. Once the sleeve is on the bottle, it is ready for the
next process.

Step 9: Heat shrink tunnel

Bottles with heat shrink labels on them are now ready to pass by this steam
tunnel to allow labels to tightly wrap around the bottles.

Step 10: Heat shrink packaging

Bottles are first grouped to a specific number, for example 20 bottles to form a
pack on the conveyor belt. This pack is then passes through the packaging machine
which wraps a heat-shrink sheet over it. As it continuing on, it will pass through a
heat source which causes loosely-fitted sheet to shrink tightly around the pack. It is
now ready for handling.

Step 11: Palletizer & shrink wrap machine

Packs of bottles are now ready to be palletized. A robotic arm is programmed
to stack them onto a pallet. Since the pallet sits on a rotational platform, when
robotic arm finished with stacking, the platform self-spins several times while the
shrink-wrap assembly moves in vertical direction wrapping the pallet and the content
tightly together.

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CHAPER 2

Ty p e s o f b l o w m o l d i n g p r o c e s s

Training manual P. 8
Types of blow molding machine

From the previous chapter, we have learnt that Chumpower’s machine is the
second link among the whole chain (following after the injection machine). Among
the current plastic industries three types of blowing processes can be seen:
Extrusion Blow Molding (EBM), Injection Blow Molding (IBM), and Stretch Blow
Molding (SBM). Within the SBM processes, it can be further divided into single
stage and two stage machine.

Types of blowing process

EBM

IBM

SBM

1-stage

2-stage

Indexing*

Linear*

Rotary

*: Chumpower specialize in

Training manual P. 9
(i) EBM machine

The basic extrusion blow molding process is depicted above, where resins are first
melted in heated barrel. Screw extruder then injects the molten material through a
die-nozzle to form continues hollowed tube parison. Once it reaches certain length,
mold closes on it following by blowing 1 Bar or approx. 90 PSI of compressed air into
the closed-end tube to form a bottle.

Training manual P. 10
 Picture beside this paragraph
showed a typical container
produced by an EBM machine.
Shampoo bottles, household
cooking oil, automobile industry
fluid containers are usually
being produced using this
process. The process median is
usually PP, PS, PVC, Nylon, ABC,
LDPE, and HDPE. One
advantage of this process is the handle can be formed with body at the same time.
Due to the material used and non-biaxial stretched body, this type of bottle is often
used for non-pressurized fluid only.
Pictures below showed an example of EBM machine. The extruder is located at
the center where the hollowed-tube parison is being extruded continuously. Since
the extrusion is slow and to finalize forming the bottle requires long cooling period,
there are two sets of blow molds fitted into this system. Working in sequential
order, the first blow mold picks up the parison while the other blow mold has
already begun with the blow-cooling process. Thus improves the productivity.

Blowing station 1 Blowing station 2

Parison extruder

Training manual P. 11
(ii) IBM machine

Injection blow molding machine involves three stages illustrated above:

Step a: molten resins are injected into a preform mold to form preform
Step b: The core with preform on it rotates to a blow mold. After the blow
mold closed, high pressure air (34 BAR) is introduced into the preform through air
passage ways within the core to form bottle.
Step c: The finished bottle is moved to the discharge side where it is to be
ejected and collected.
IBM machine is usually used to produce small pill bottles but large production
volume for medical industry. The processing median for this type of machine is
usually PP, PVC, ABC, Nylon, LDPE, and HDPE.

Pictures above showed the external and internal view of a typical IBM machine.
Please note that the iconic symbol of triangle piece of the IBM machine can be seen
on the above right picture. Please be aware that both blow molding processes do
not use stretch rod to induce biaxial stretch of the parison, which caused the bottles
produced using this method unable to withstand high filling pressure and has higher

Training manual P. 12
gas permeability, thus are not suitable for CSD application, but suitable as
pharmaceutical bill container.

(iii) Biaxial stretch: the difference of BM and SBM

Before we do further discussion, we should introduce the concept of biaxial
stretching. In SBM process, a stretch rod is used to induce a biaxial stretch of the
preform during blowing. The blow picture illustrates this process.

Before stretching starts, Preform being stretched, Preform fully stretched in both
polymer chain are entangled preblow starts, and polymer directions, polymer chains are
chain starts to aligned aligned with improved gas
permeability

Biaxial stretch: horizontal and vertical stretch

Since the induced stretch is plastic deformation type, the PET material underwent
strain hardening and became stronger compares to bottles produced by blow
molding process which only stretched horizontally by air. SBM processed bottle
also has good gas barrier capability compares to BM processed bottle due to the
alignment of the polymer chains in both directions. Therefore, PET and SBM
process are preferable method for CSD application due to the requirement to
withstand 30PSI of internal pressure after filling and better gas-barrier capability
which offers longer product shelf-life.

Training manual P. 13
 (iv) Single stage SBM machine
Basically it’s a 2-in-1 machine which it injects preforms first following by
blowing bottles. Since this type of machine do all these processes in one shot,
hence the name single stage machine. Below shows a picture of this machine and
anther one illustrates its’ basic components.

Pic: ASB machine

Hydraulic valve assembly

Conditioning unit
Blow mold unit Stretching unit
Pump Motor Oil cooler

Nozzle
Rotary table servo motor Eject unit Barrel
Upper clamping unit Injection unit

Top view showing key components

Training manual P. 14
One stage machine has three station and four station type. In this example, we will
talk about the four station type which is: injection, conditioning, stretch & blow, and
ejecting.

(2)Conditioning

(3) Blow (1) Injection

(4) Eject

(1) Injection station:

Thread die also

serves as gripper to
handle preform

Resin granules are heated in barrel to molten state and injected in vertical
direction into a preform mold. The mold cools the preforms so they are in solid
form but yet soft enough for forming. Thread die is part of mold but also serves as
griper to handle preform/bottle throughout the processes, so the finished preforms
are carried to the next station by rotating table. Four sets of thread dies are fixed
on the rotating table to increase productivity.

Training manual P. 15
(2) Condition station

In this station, cores are used to “adjust” preform temperature which helped with
bottle material distribution in the next station.

(3) Blow station

Once preforms are ready, rotating table carries the “hot” preforms to blow station
where bottles are formed.

(4) Eject station

In this station, wedge cam is used to push the thread die a part, and the bottles fall
into a chute where they are to be collected

Training manual P. 16
 Besides the obvious advantage of performing two tasks in one machine, it suffers
from low productivity due to long cycle time. Therefore this type of machine is
usually suitable for small scale or low capacity production.
Nissei ASB machine is a well-known manufacturer that produces both single
stage and two stage machines. In Korea, there are still many bottle providers using
single stage machine to produce PET bottles, but have tendency of replacing them
with high-speed two stage machine.

Training manual P. 17
(v) Two stage machine
For this type of machine, preforms have to be made first by injection machine
then stored until to be used. Unlike single stage machine where preforms are
cooled from 280 0C down to 70 0C after injection followed by blowing right away,
two stage machine takes “cold” preforms and heats it up to 70-90 0C also known as
the processing temperature before blowing. Since this type of machine requires a
separate heating system to heat up preforms, therefore two stage machine
sometime is referred to as reheat SBM machine. The main advantage of this type
of processing is the short cycle time comparing to one stage machine.
Chumpower’s machines have cycle times ranging from 2.4s to 3.0s which translates
to 2,000-18,000 BPH production capacity depending on models. A two stage
machine can be further divided into three subcategories: indexing, linear, and rotary
types.

(1) Indexing type

In the world of machinery, simple design is good design. Chumpower’s

indexing machine is simple to operate and maintain. Most components are
pneumatic driven while clamping is a hydraulic system. An all-electric version of
this type of machine is also available, end user can enjoy the convenience of setting
the stretch rod and transfer distance from control screen alone, which is my
personal favorite feature. The reason why it’s called indexing type is because the
transfer system moves in intermitted style. The standard cycle time for
Chumpower’s TS-series machine is 3.0s, which translates to 1000 bottles per cavity.

Training manual P. 18
 The picture below illustrates the basic components of a four cavity TS –series
machine. The transfer grip is responsible for pushing all mandrels to move around
the machine. Since the gripper moves in reciprocal motion, hence the name
indexing type machine. Please also noted the self-spin motion for each mandrel as
it moves through the heating ovens, the purpose is to ensure even heating of the
preforms.

oven oven
Mandrel self-spin

Mandrel moving
direction

oven
clamp

Transfer grip reciprocal motion

oven

discharge infeed

Transfer forward Indexing motion

Training manual P. 19
 (2) Linear type

The above picture brings back memory for some. This second generation
linear type machine is one of major mile stone for Chumpower since it signifies the
capability to compete with rest of the world in linear-high-speed blow molding
machine category.
Infeed rail

star wheel (servo 1)

oven 1 oven 2 oven 3

self-spin mandrel

Preform transfer
(Servo 3)
mandrel chain (servo 1)
mandrel chain
rotation direction
oven 6 oven 5 oven 4

variable pitch (servo 2)

Note (below 2 servos are omitted for clarity):

Stretch rod (servo 5)
Clamping (servo 4) Sealer (servo 6)

Linear machine differs from indexing machine in two ways: continuous heating,
and servo driven system to achieve high speed. In the indexing machine, preforms
are travelled through the heating ovens in intermitted motion. If spacing between
ovens is not setup correctly, operator might experience inconsistent bottle quality
across all cavities. As the above picture has shown, in linear machine preforms are
inserted onto a mandrel chain which rotating in one continuous motion, therefore
does not susceptible to the same heating problem that indexing type faces.
Training manual P. 20
 The major selling point for linear machine is its’ higher output capability and low
energy consumption due to servo-driven system comparing to indexing type
machine. The six cavities machine has processing speed of 9,000 BPH, while the
twelve cavities has the speed of 18,000 BPH. In Korea, some manufacturer is
running two LS machines at 7500 BPH each to support a 2Liter water line.
The sale starts back in 2008 and since has becoming Chumpower’s most popular
model among our customers.

Training manual P. 21
 (3) Rotary type
This type of machine is built specifically for one purpose only that is speed, and is
considered as the pinnacle of all SBM machines in the industry. Picture below gives
a simple illustration on how rotary machine works:

8. Blowing station

1. unscrambler

5. oven

4. Mandrel
chain

2. Infeed rail
3. Infeed
star wheel
10. Outfeed rail
6. preform
transfer wheel
9. Outfeed 7. Infeed
wheel wheel

Step 1: Preforms are sorted through the unscrambler

Step 2: Preforms sliding down into a star wheel
Step 3: Star wheel functions as an exchange platform for mandrel chain to pick up
preforms
Step 4: Preform chain picks up preforms, and noted that the chain is vertical design
Step 5: Preforms are being heated, since preform chain is vertical design, there are
two levels of heating ovens
Step 6: Heated preforms are unload onto a transfer wheel
Step 7: Infeed gripper picks up preform and load it into the blow station
Step 8: Preforms are inflated into bottles in the Blow stations
Step 9: Outfeed gripper picks up formed bottle
Step 10: Forced-air outfeed rail catches the bottles redirect them into filling line

Training manual P. 22
The most significant difference of rotary type from the rest is its’ blow timing.
Instead of relying on a preblow and a high-pressure-blow sensor to monitor the
stretch rod position to trigger the timing, the rotary machine reads the angle
position of the blow station provided by an encoder, and conducted the blowing
process according to the encoder values. This process is shown below.

High pressure
(100-2550)
Preblow
(50-950)

Exhaust
(255-3100)
Stretch0 rod down
(40-80 )

Clamp open/close
(320-3600) / (0-400)

Famous rotary machine manufacturers and their machine output is stated blow to
give us an idea of how fast they are:

Manufacturer Model (cold fill) Machine output (BPH) Container (Liter)

SIDEL SBO Highspeed 34XS 64,600 0.2-0.75
KRONES Contiform S36K 72,000 0.7
KHS BLOMAX series IV 36 81,000 0.5
SIPA SFR 24 EVO 50,400 Max 3

Training manual P. 23
Examples of some of these magnificent machines are shown below with
manufacturer’s name.

KRONES:

Pic: from KRONES Brochure

Training manual P. 24
SIDEL:

Pic: from SIDEL Brochure

Training manual P. 25
SIPA

Pic: from SIPA Brochure

Training manual P. 26
 Pic: from SIPA Brochure
Training manual P. 27
KHS:

pic: KHS web

Training manual P. 28
Chapter 3

I n t r o d u c t i o n t o P E T

Training manual P. 29
3.1 PET Intro

3.2 Crystallization by natural cooling:

3.3 Amorphous phase and quenching

3.4 Crystallization by stretch

3.5 Crystallization by nucleation

3.6 Stretch ratio

Training manual P. 30
3.1 PET Intro
PET stands for Poly-Ethylene Terephthalate. It is a semi-crystalline polymer made
of many repeating “units”. The unit refers to terephthalate and ethylene
compound as shown below.

O O
- C-O-CH2-CH2-O-C-

ester
terephthalat ester
e
ethylene
n

The chain is long and flexible therefore allows the plastic to have excellent stretch
ability. Metal does not have that ability due to different crystalline structure. In
metal the molecules are arranged in a cubic lattice form. It is a three dimensional
cube, with strong covalent bond and uniformed bonding length throughout the
structure. In polymer, the molecules are arranged in chain-like structure. The
main chains are covalent bond, but polymer chains are arranged in layers which held
by weaker van-der Waals bond. The flexible chain-like structure and weaker
between-layers bond are the main reasons why polymers are very stretchy.
Good stretch ability

Long and elastic polymer chain Strong cubic form of metal

PET is an amorphous material, so what does that mean? In a simplest form, an

amorphous material is a liquid but yet rigid enough to be in solid form. Window
glass, mayonnaise, and PET are examples of amorphous materials. These types of
materials have physical property called glass transition temperature. Amorphous
material molecules will be freeze under this point, if it is above, then molecular
chains are starting to move around and the material becomes soft and rubbery.
Therefore it is this temperature region where we need our PET preforms to reach in
order to be able to form bottles.

Training manual P. 31
 There are two types of plastics: thermoset and thermoplastic. Thermoset refers
to type of plastic that once it’s cured, it can not be reheated and melted to form a
different shape, thus is not an ideal recyclable material to made new plastic.
Thermoplastic on the other hand can be reheated to molten state and be reused to
make new plastic. PET belongs to this type of plastic.
In the following sections, we’ll look at two important mechanisms that drive the
crystallization of PET molecules, which is by natural cooling, mechanical stretching,
and nucleation.
The crystallization of polymer is basically the alignment process of molecular chain,
and how crystals grow as the result. It is important for PET to be properly
crystallized because it will increase the bottle body strength, able to hold the
internal pressure of the contained fluid, and offers good gas barrier property for CSD
applications.

Training manual P. 32
 3.2 Crystallization by natural cooling
In this section, we will talk about PET’s chain structural changes at temperatures
from molten state down to room temperature through natural cooling process.
At temperature above the melting point Tm, the PET molecules are very
energetic, thus the chain structures are disoriented and entangled. As the
temperature drop below Tm, the crystallization begins as the molecule chains start to
fold, align, then stacked together to form lamellae. The crystal growth process is
reaches its’ peak at 180 C, as layers of lamellae joint together to form lots of crystal
spheres called spherulites. When the temperature dropped to near the glass
transition temperature Tg, crystal growth slows down and molecules movement
became sluggish. Once the temperature drops below Tg, molecules freeze and
polymer chain structures are locked-in as semi-crystalline state. It’s call
semi-crystalline because structures are mixed with crystallines and amorphous
chains. PET can not be 100% crystallized because although polymer chains want to
be aligned perfectly, there are other short amorphous chains trapped between them,
and since those chains can not squeeze them, therefore the whole structure is
compromised from perfect alignment.

Chain folding Chain stacking Spherulite growth

(Crystal growth)

Crystalline
Amorphous

T > Tm Tg < T < Tm T < Tg & T=1800C

Energetic molecules, Chains start to fold and Maximum realignment achieved at 1800C,
entangled chains realigned, crystallization molecules are frozen once below Tg, and
max at 180 0C structures locked in

Note: Crystalline is mixed with amorphous

chain, thus is called semi-crystalline

Training manual P. 33
 Crystallized

Amorphous state
Structure locks in

Crystal
growth
rate

Physical state: Solid Physical state: Soft & Malleable Physical state: Liquid

Chain structure: Semi-crystalline Chain structure: Semi-crystalline Chain structure: Amorphous

0 50 85 100 150 200 250 300

Tg 0
Temperature ( C ) Tm

Natural cooling process of PET

The above diagram is the crystal growth rate curve showing how crystal growth
during the natural cooling process and eventually locked-in after temperature drop
below the glass transition point. Crystallized PET looks hazy or white (if heavily
crystallized) because spherulites reflect the light and do not allow light to pass
through.

Crystallized State: Appear opaque or cloudy:

Mix with crystallized and Spherulites reflect light
amorphous region

Training manual P. 34
Below are some pictures of the actual crystals (spherulites) under electron
microscope.

Training manual P. 35
 3.3 Amorphous phase and quenching
Step 2: quenching

Step 1: injection

By using the injection machine as example, we’ll look at how quenching plays a
important role to get a preform to stay in the amorphous state.

Step 1:
In the injection phase, PET is in amorphous phase since temperature is above the
melting point and the molecules are too energetic for crystals to be formed.

Step 2:
After injection is completed, preform is cooled down rapidly from the processing
temperature of 2830C to below the glass transition temperature of 800C. This
caused the polymer chains to freeze instantly because they do not have the time to
react to temperature change. Therefore finished preform has the same amorphous
structure as molten PET. This type of fast cooling is called quenching.

Quenching bypass crystal growth

Quenching: molecules locked Injection phase: molecules in

in at amorphous phase amorphous phase

Crystal
growth
rate Physical state: Liquid
Physical state: Solid Crystallization bypassed due to no time to react
Chain structure: amorphous Chain structure: amorphous

0 50 85 100 150 200 250 300

Tg 0
Temperature ( C ) Tm

Training manual P. 36
PET in amorphous state is clear because the entangled chain allows the light to pass
through.

Amorphous State: Seen as clear:

Characterized by entangled Light able to pass
polymer chain

Training manual P. 37
3.4 Crystallization by stretch
There are two ways for PET polymer to achieve crystallization, which is by
natural cooling and by mechanical stretch. Both methods are simply just a form of
chain realignment weather it is by nature or by force. In this section we are going
to talk about the second method here.
Stretch-induced crystallization usually applies to PET fiber drawing for textile
industry. Picture below shows how this process is related to crystallization.
Before the fiber is drawn, molten polymer chains are in the disoriented form. As
fiber is drawing through a die, molecular chains get aligned at direction of pulling
forces. It is this type of chain realignment that classified mechanical stretch as a
form of crystallization. The fiber is being stretched out so far that the string
became a single crystal by itself.

For PET industry, only resins are close to experience this type of crystallization,
since it is produced by extruding molten PET through a narrow die continuously
while being chopped at same time to form palletized resins. The aligned polymer
chains from orientated crystallization can be free and get back to the amorphous
state by raising the temperature to melting point.
In two stage machine, polymer chains do not get overly stretched like fiber,
therefore the stretch process for making a PET bottle is not considered as a form of
crystallization by orientation (although it is possible if preform with incorrect stretch
ratio with respect to bottle height is used). However, we will still talk about how
entangled chains of preform get realigned in SBM process.

Training manual P. 38
 During reheat, preform temperature is brought to glass transition region where
it is formable, since crystal growth is still possible at this temperature, stretch and
blow process should be carried out soon as possible before crystallization begins.
The biaxial stretch forced the polymer chains to be aligned in both direction, since it
is not a sever stretch, it is not a form of crystallization but served as mechanism
called strain-induced plastic deformation which increases bottle’s physical strength.

Preforms are heated to this temperature region where it

is rubbery, and blowing process has to be carried out
fast enough before the on-set of crystal growth.

Crystal
Preform reheat
growth
rate

Amorphous Crystal growth region Melt region

region

0 50 85 100 150 0 200 250 300

Temperature ( C )

Before stretching starts, Polymer chain starts to Biaxial stretch allow chains to be
polymer chain are entangled aligned during stretch and aligned in both directions
preblow

Training manual P. 39
 The diagram below shows the temperature path of single stage machine and
two stage machine. Both machines have the same temperature path in the
injection phase until preform cooling where they have different path.
The solid line represents the single stage machine, where preform is cooled to
temperature around the glass transition temperature and is sent to blow mold to
form bottle.
The dotted line represents the two stage machine, and since preforms are
stored after injection, the path shows it is cooled to room temperature. When it is
time for processing, preforms are reheated to the glass transition range before
processing.

Temperature path of single stage machine and two stage machine

Training manual P. 40
3.5 Crystallization by nucleation

Heat set process involves in different crystallization method called nucleation

(heterogeneous type) instead of spherulitic crystallization described in natural
cooling process (homogeneous type). Before nucleation begins, nuclei must be
present for lamellas to grow around it. Scientist has found that by mixing nuclei
agent also known as catalyst with PET resin during injection process, a different type
of preform can be produced. It would have faster crystal growth rate at lower
temperature around 1100C instead of 1800C, which is the point for maximum
spherulitic crystallization growth. Picture below show the concept of crystal
growth by nucleation, and how it is different compares to preform without catalyst.

Preform A
(Non-catalyst)

Preform B
(With catalyst)

As you can see from above, preform B has catalyst, and it contains much more
nucleuses compare to preform A, which helped in further crystal growth.
Another thing that is different in heat set process is that mold temperatures are
elevated to 180-90 0C by running hot oil through it, which helps nucleation and
crystal growth of bottle surface, thus increased physical bottle strength and
dimension stability during hot-filling process.

Training manual P. 41
 PET nucleation starts at much lower temperature around 1100C compares to
maximum spherulite crystallization growth temperature of 1800C. The spherulites
formed from nuclei centers at lower temperature are smaller than crystal structures
formed when molten PET is cooled down naturally. These temperature ranges are
stated in picture below.

Left picture shows the temperature

path which includes the regions for
nucleation and spherulite growth
process

Three types of nucleating agents (catalyst) can be used, they are talc, sodium
benzoate, and ionomer (Ion, Na+). Among all, sodium benzoate is the best suited
agent to accelerate the nuclei crystallization. The crystallization mod of PET
becomes two dimensional growth instead of the three (sphere shape) due to the use
of nucleating agents.
Moisture is also another factor that can interfere with nucleation due to
hydrolytic break down of polymer chain. Thus production environment is another
factor that must not be overlooked.

Training manual P. 42
3.6 Stretch ratio

H1 H2
Vertical stretch ratio =
H1
Usually 2.4-2.6 times

D2
Horizontal stretch ratio =
D1
D1 H2 Usually 4-4.5 times

Total ratio= 8-12 times

D2

There are two type of ratio that needs to be addressed:

- Horizontal expansion ratio is usually kept to 4-4.5 time
- Vertical stretch ratio is usually 2.4-2.6 times
Thus the hoop ratio or the total expansion ratio is 8-12 times. This is important
since some bottle producers do not inject preform by themselves but chooses to
purchase them from a supplier. It became important for technician to know not to
use short preform for large bottle since it will leave pearlescent on bottle surface
which is undesirable.

Training manual P. 43
Chapter 4

T h e b l o w i n g p r o c e s s

Training manual P. 44
4.1 Blowing process can be hard to learn?

4.2 Basic blowing process

4.3 Blowing process of cold-fill bottle in phoenix series machine

4.4 Blowing process of hot-fill bottle in phoenix series machine

4.5 Blowing process of cold-fill bottle in linear series machine

4.6 Blowing process of hot-fill bottle in linear series machine

Training manual P. 45
4.1 Blowing process can be hard to learn?

To some people obtaining the proper parameters for stabilized processing can
be frustrating. Sometimes, when people don’t fully understand or being in
controlled over something, they usually called it a “Black Art”. Well, it can be,
especially if end user want to save material cost by choosing lighter weight preform
or have already purchased preforms in large quantities and thus stuck with a certain
type of preform that is not suitable for processing due to bottle shape. Do I have
solution for these problems? No, I don’t, but we can try to understand what
preform going through in blowing process, so we can at least have some direction
during parameter optimizing. When solid foundation of how preform interacts
within blowing process coupled with experiences, it becomes knowledge and
abilities that will transform this “black art” into a “performing art”.

4.2 Basic blowing process

When preform has been heated pass the glass transition temperatures around
75-80 0C, it became soft enough to be inflated by compressed air. PET machine
uses low pressure and high pressure to inflate a bottle in two stages. For
chumpower machines, the low pressure or also known as preblow is set around 8-10
BAR (approx. 90-100 PSI), and high pressure air is about 35 BAR.
In the blowing process, stretch comes down and touches the preform, this is the
time when preform starts, and as preform being stretched preblow kept on going to
prevent the plastic material from wrapped around the stretch rod which causes
internal fold of a bottle. The preform is now shaped like a balloon while being
stretched. Stretch rod stopped at a position that almost touches base mold
(2-3mm gap from stretch rod tip to base mold), and preblow stops leaving the bottle
80-90% formed. The end of preblow signifies the onset of high pressure blow, at 35
BAR it completes the last 5-10% of the bottle by pressing the materials tightly against
the mold, thus created design details on the final bottle. Therefore you can say low
pressure air completes the general form of a bottle while high pressure air creates
finishing details.

Training manual P. 46
 4.3 Blowing process of cold-fill bottle in phoenix series machine

Stretch rod up Preblow start Preblow & Stretch Preblow end

High
Exhaust (NO)
High pressure (NC)
Preblow Preblow (NC)

Down

Preblow sensor signaled + preblow Stretch and preblow at 10 BAR Preblow end, bottle is 80-90% complete
Stretch rod is at down position
delay time = preblow valve opening
and ready to go up timing
Preblow pressure usually set at 8-10
BAR

High pressure blow Holding Vent

High

Preblow

Down

Holding time: high pressure valve is closed Exhaust: remaining air is vented out through
High pressure sensor signaled + high
and bottle internal pressure is kept at 32 silencer
pressure delay time = high pressure valve

opening timing BAR

High pressure usually at 32-35 BAR for

finishing details

Training manual P. 47
 4.4 Blowing process of hot-fill bottle in phoenix series machine
Heat set process is different by additional step of internal cooling by stretch
rod, due to mold surface has to be hot to induce bottle crystallization. The grayed
out steps represents the cold-fill processing steps whereas the hot-fill set is
dedicated by black print for reading simplicity purpose.
Stretch rod up Preblow start Preblow & Stretch Preblow end

. . . .

.
. .
. .
. . . . .

High

Preblow

Down

Preblow sensor signaled + preblow Stretch and preblow at 10 BAR Preblow end, bottle is 80-90% complete
Stretch rod is at down position
delay time = preblow valve opening
and ready to go up timing
Preblow pressure usually set at 8-10
High pressure blow BAR Circulation Cooling Vent

Exhaust (NO)
High pressure (NC)
Preblow (NC)

Cir. Vent (NC)

Cir. Cooling (NC)

High pressure sensor signaled + high Since the mold is hot (1920C) the only way to cool the bottle Exhaust: remaining air is vented out through

pressure delay time = high pressure valve is by blowing air from stretch rod into the bottle. silencer

opening timing Circulation is done by air flowing from stretch rod through

High pressure usually at 32-35 BAR for the neck down into the blowing air pathway and exit out

finishing details from circulation vent valve.

Training manual P. 48
 4.5 Blowing process of cold-fill bottle in linear series machine
Diagram below shows the correlations between sensors, stretch rod position,
and valve working sequence in each stage.

UL
Home
Preblow Preblow Preblow

High
Exhaust solenoid (NO)
LL
Preblow solenoid (NC)
High pressure solenoid (NC)
Recovery solenoid
(NO to tank)
10 BAR 10 BAR

0 BAR 0->10 BAR

Stretch rod down Preblow sensor tripped Preblow tripped + preblow delay Stretch while preblowing

= Preblow valve open timing

Home Home

High

10 BAR 32 BAR 32 BAR 20 BAR

10 BAR 10-> 32 BAR 32 -> 20 BAR 20 -> 0 BAR

Stretch rod fully down, High pressure sensor triggered + Redirect internal air to Vent to atmosphere

80-90% form completion on high pressure blow delay = high tank (Recovery)

preblow alone, high pressure pressure onset timing, bottle is

about to be triggered cooled and details are formed

Training manual P. 49
 4.6 Blowing process of hot-fill bottle in linear series machine
The heat set mechanism for linear machine is actually required less valves due to a
dedicated tank for supplying air for cooling step.
UL
Home
Preblow Preblow Preblow

High
LL Circulation cooling (NC)
Exhaust solenoid (NO)
Preblow solenoid (NC)
High pressure solenoid (NC)

10 BAR 10 BAR

0 BAR 0->10 BAR

Stretch rod down Preblow sensor tripped Preblow tripped + preblow delay Stretch while preblowing

= Preblow valve open timing

Home

High High

10 BAR 32 BAR

10 BAR 10-> 32 BAR

Stretch rod fully down, High pressure sensor triggered + Cooling by convection current Vent to atmosphere

80-90% form completion on high pressure blow delay = high by blowing air through stretch

preblow alone, high pressure pressure onset timing, bottle is rod

about to be triggered cooled and details are formed

Training manual P. 50
NOTES:

Training manual P. 51