Detailed description

Higher performance for greater efficiency

A twin-station blow moulding machine designed for enhanced production efficiency. The HESTA twin-station blow moulding machine unlocks entirely new advantages. Progress that achieves more with lower investment requirements. Are you looking to maximize bottle production? With the new HESTA blow moulding machines of the HL & HLD series, you are well-equipped for this task – producing up to 16 or 2×16 bottles per cycle.

High-volume orders can be efficiently fulfilled, for instance, using the maximum possible number of cavities. Precise, cost-effective, and – when required – just-in-time with minimized warehousing. Shortly thereafter, you can manufacture larger-format items with a reduced number of cavities. In between, thanks to quick and easy tool changes, changeover times are kept to a minimum. This ensures low unit costs alongside flexible production and optimized capacity utilization.

Your advantages:

• High flexibility through rapid tool changes: from 2-cavity to 16-cavity moulds
• High output capacity for both large and small batch sizes
• High article quality thanks to new HESTA parison heads
• Energy-saving, high-performance extruder with a globally unique extruder drive
• Short changeover times thanks to directly flange-mounted transfer units
• High service life with precise mold guidance through an open clamping system with direct

Clamping force application without bending stress on the guide columns

• Safe single-side discharge of tested bottles via dual-station transfer units on the mold for the single-station version, left & right for the dual-station machine, or also directed to one side with a height-adjustable conveyor belt.
• Variable transfer options to downstream stations
• Low adjustment effort as no transport rails are required
• Universally equipped with post-cooling station, rotary cutter, and bottle tester
• Convenient machine operation
• Small footprint due to a very compact, open design with excellent accessibility
• Favorable price-performance ratio with high-quality new HESTA-

Ready for anything: Our universal extruder

The universal extruder is equipped with replaceable feed bushings and allows the use of all blow-molding materials, in powder or pellet form, with or without regrind admixture. Speed control allows the machine's cycle time to be kept constant. Depending on the material, appropriate screws with or without a mixing section are used. The unique extruder drive is not only energy-saving, but is also powered by four individual motors. This enables the easy replacement of a single motor; furthermore, emergency operation or operation with reduced output while simultaneously repairing an individual motor is possible.

Our wall thickness control:

The electronic parison wall thickness control with a maintenance-free crank drive is mounted directly on the extruder, ensuring it remains on the machine even during a head change. This allows for extremely short changeover times and low acquisition costs for an additional extrusion head. The wall thickness is pre-programmed across the entire parison length using 100 points, which can be entered manually or drawn in. The timing sequence adapts automatically to the cycle time of the blow molding machine.

Our extrusion head:

A finely graduated selection of extrusion heads is available in single or multi-cavity designs, mono or multi-layer configurations, and with spider, pin-type, or spiral mandrel designs for all standard nozzle spacings. Our unique Vario heads can be retrofitted from the original mono head to a sight stripe or DeCo2 head simply by replacing a feed plate. This flexible and cost-effective retrofit is unique worldwide.

Parison cutter:

Cold and hot cutting systems are available for separating the parison; these are pneumatically driven, but can also be extended by our unique electric high-speed knife. With a speed of up to 12 m/s, this knife cuts the parison before it is subjected to any disturbance. Thus, the folding of the parison is reduced to a minimum. The portfolio is rounded off by our parison closing and cutting device with controlled blow-back air. Immediately after the parison cutting process, the extruder is raised in the head area by means of a maintenance-free crank mechanism.

Shaped into form: Our blow heads

The universal blow head enables economical and time-saving multi-cavity blow molding – from 2-fold to 16-fold. The number of individual pre-assemblable blow pins depends on the number of mold cavities. Calibration is performed electrically using a maintenance-free crank mechanism with 30 kN calibration force. The universal blow head is securely guided on both sides; the patented calibration cushion ensures simple 0-point calibration of the blow pin height relative to the pinch-off edge in the mold, and a reproducible set calibration force in every cycle. The universal blow head allows 1-fold up to 16-fold blowing. It can be set up for all available nozzle spacings via positioning fit keys. Large cross-sections ensure sufficient air volumes. The blow pins are water-cooled right up to the tip. It is also possible to provide angular calibration.

Directed transfer:

The blown articles are removed from the blow pin by masks attached directly to the blow mold and transferred to a single plane of the downstream station. This eliminates the need for manual alignment and setup, resulting in dramatic savings in changeover times. Double masks can be used to serve an additional downstream station (e.g., for leak testing). This handling process ensures optimal cooling of the hollow bodies and increases output performance. Neck and bottom flash, as well as handle scrap, are removed by pneumatic punching cylinders.

new HESTA’s unique mold change concept:

As a new feature, the machine has a patented blow mold and deflashing system. Essential tool parts such as the base mold/mask and punching units can be replaced with minimal effort and without re-adjusting during a re-tooling process. The transfer masks designed for multiple downstream stations are attached directly to the corresponding blow mold halves. The tool parts required for post-processing fit into the machine-side standardized mountings with the highest precision. This makes it possible to exchange both the blow mold-mask unit and the tool parts in the downstream stations from machine to machine, with minimal effort and without re-adjustment during a re-tooling process. The blow pins are pre-assembled in their mountings so that they can be installed quickly and easily during tool changes. Thanks to this modern tool-changing technology, changeover times are significantly shortened, setup work and the one-time adjustment of punching tools are facilitated, and overall efficiency is increased. The machine is equipped with the proven 4-circuit cooling system with direct cooling water supply via the clamping plates and O-ring sealing.

Open and close, back and forth: The clamping system

The open C-frame clamping system with two lower tie bars features a steplessly adjustable clamping force up to 220 kN / 350 kN, which is also driven by a maintenance-free crank mechanism, as well as an adjustable mold opening stroke. The tie bars are not subject to bending stress and therefore ensure precise guidance of the clamping plates; a unique feature is the return of the cooling water through the tie bars themselves. The patented clamping cushion allows you to fully automatically calibrate the mold thickness by +- 5 mm, and the clamping force can also be optimally adjusted to your article in set-up mode. Human setting errors are ruled out with new HESTA. If the machine detects a minimal deviation during production, it immediately performs an automatic set-up and adjusts the clamping force. The blow mold is freely accessible. The lightweight construction results in low masses and thus short cycle times. Two separate cooling circuits are available in each clamping plate, wherein the integrated cooling circuit connection through the clamping plates not only makes a major contribution to quick changeover, but incorrect connections are also ruled out. To facilitate tool changes, an additional side door is attached to the safety guard. Here, as with all other components, the latest safety recommendations have been taken into account.

Drive for savings: Electric drives and pneumatics

Energy-efficient servo drives power the extrusion unit, the shifting and clamping movements, as well as the calibration unit. The associated Beckhoff servo drives always represent the latest generation, enabling economical production through optimal adjustment of energy consumption to machine utilization. The pneumatics control the blowing, cooling, transfer, punching, and ejection functions using proven, sophisticated components. The standard pneumatic valves are arranged in a service-friendly manner on a central base plate.

Control cabinet & control system:

The electrical control cabinet is vibration-damped, easily accessible, and mounted on the machine in a service-friendly manner. The programmable logic controller with a front-mounted panel meets the highest standards of reproducibility—simple, secure, and clearly structured. It allows for the individual input of all setpoints for motion sequences, heating, and wall thickness control, as well as the integrated bottle tester. An internal background memory facilitates setpoint optimization. All inputs and error messages are displayed in plain text. The warning and monitoring systems included in the standard equipment monitor the entire machine process. In the basic version, four authorization levels prevent unauthorized inputs, and personalized login can optionally be activated. Inputs and all error messages are logged for process traceability. Two monitor sizes are available depending on the machine type for ease of operation. The colored 12-inch and 21-inch touch panels are directly connected to the Windows-based modular control system. Any number of setpoint datasets can be stored in the internal memory or conveniently transferred to an external storage medium via a USB port. This shortens changeover times—especially for small batch sizes—and increases cost-effectiveness. All common languages can be switched quickly and easily. Preparation for online service is a matter of course for us and can be easily implemented using pre-installed software.

If you want more: The auxiliary equipment:

• The fully automatic production of wide-neck containers is carried out either by circular cutters with an optionally electrically or pneumatically operated, rotating knife for removing the waste flash outside the mold in the trimming station, with horizontal or vertical cutting being possible.

• The fully integrated bottle tester is used for leak testing and neck inspection. This can optionally be expanded with a neck passage inspection. Defective items are thus prevented from being passed on and drop directly onto the flash scrap conveyor. Since 100% tested bottles are discharged from the machine, customer complaints about leaking bottles are a thing of the past.

new HESTA blow moulding solutions GmbH & Co. KG

Address

Werrenwiesenstraße 89
D-73525 Schwäbisch Gmünd

Email

info@hesta.de

support@hesta.de

Telephone & Fax

Tel. +49 (0) 71 71 / 99 790 – 0
Fax +49 (0) 71 71 / 99 790 – 13

Daniel Knabel

Deputy Management, Technical Director, Key Account

Telephone +49 (0) 71 71 / 99 790 – 10
knabel[at]hesta.de