High speed is more than just fast, and quality is more than just excellent: the innovative and advanced fully automatic PET preform production line

Against the backdrop of the growing demand for packaging in the beverage, food, and pharmaceutical industries, PET preforms, as the primary preforms, are increasingly subject to increasingly stringent quality and production efficiency requirements. Advances can be achieved through technological innovation, quality control, and strict quality requirements.

1. High-speed injection molding machine

Ultra-high-speed injection system

High-speed injection molding machines are equipped with high-performance injection systems. The injection cylinder uses a large-diameter piston and an advanced hydraulic control system, which can generate strong thrust in a very short time. For example, when producing common beverage bottle preforms, the injection cylinder pushes the screw, injecting the PET melt into the mold cavity at speeds of up to tens of centimeters per second. Compared with traditional injection molding machines, the injection speed is increased by 30% to 50%, significantly shortening the molding cycle of a single preform. Furthermore, through precise hydraulic control technology, the injection speed and pressure can be flexibly adjusted according to the size, wall thickness, and other requirements of the bottle embryo. For thin-walled preforms, rapid injection can be performed to ensure the melt fills the cavity quickly and evenly to prevent underfilling. For preforms with complex structures and high dimensional accuracy requirements, the pressure can be precisely controlled while ensuring filling to avoid defects such as burrs and warping in the preforms.

Multi-cavity Parallel Production

High-speed injection molding machines are typically equipped with molds with 64 to 128 cavities (traditionally 32 to 48 cavities). By optimizing flow channel balance and cooling efficiency, the daily production capacity of a single machine exceeds 500,000 preforms.

Rapid Plasticization Technology

To meet the needs of high-speed injection, PET high-speed injection molding machines have also made significant innovations in plasticization. Screw design fully considers the characteristics of PET raw materials, and parameters such as thread groove depth, pitch, and compression ratio are carefully optimized. Some advanced screws are also equipped with special mixing elements, such as pins, barrier sections, and so on. During screw rotation, these mixing elements cause strong shearing and agitation effects on the PET raw materials, significantly improving plasticization efficiency. Typically, the plasticization speed of a high-speed injection molding machine is 20% to 30% faster than that of a conventional injection molding machine. It can quickly convert granular PET raw materials into a uniform and fluid melt, providing a sufficient material supply for continuous high-speed injection.

2. Quality Assurance

For PET preform production, quality is not only the basic requirement of the product, but also the foundation for a company's market position. The fully automatic PET preform production line implements quality control innovations from multiple dimensions to ensure product quality reaches leading levels. In terms of mold manufacturing, high-precision five-axis machining centers and electrospark machining technology are introduced to ensure the dimensional accuracy of the mold cavity reaches ±0.01 mm and the surface roughness Ra≤0.4 μm. This high-precision mold can produce bottle embryos with precise dimensions and smooth surfaces, effectively improving the appearance of the product. At the same time, the mold adopts a special hot runner system to ensure the melt is evenly filled into the mold by precisely controlling the temperature and pressure distribution, avoiding defects such as subsidence and bubbles.​

In terms of green production, the production line adopts a series of energy-saving technologies and environmental protection measures. The injection molding machine is equipped with an energy-efficient servo motor and hydraulic system, which reduces energy consumption by more than 25% compared to traditional equipment. The mold cooling system uses waste heat recovery technology to recycle the heat generated during the cooling process for preheating raw materials or other process steps, thereby achieving efficient energy circulation. Furthermore, the production line also focuses on reducing waste emissions during the production process, reducing the environmental impact through process optimization and the use of environmentally friendly materials, and practicing the concept of sustainable development.

Driven by innovation, the fully automatic PET preform production line has achieved comprehensive progress in high-speed production, quality assurance, intelligence, and ecology. It has not only created significant economic benefits and competitive advantages for the company but has also outlined the direction for the future development of the industry.