Tahara blow molding machine designed for large volumes

Innovarex 400D Japan-based manufacturer Tahara Machinery’s new electric extrusion blow molding machine is designed for large-volume production. It has a clamping force of about 45 tons, and a new design that allows it to employ anything from a single head to 12 heads for six-layer coextrusion, depending on the user’s needs. In an example of a three-layer part, the company said the inner layer, comprising 20 percent, could be HDPE; the middle layer, comprising 60 percent, HDPE plus regrind; and the outer layer, comprising 20 percent, HDPE and color. The company said this distribution would be appropriate for daily-use products such as detergents, shampoo and liquid soap, or products such as lubricant oil.  

What’s new? The Innovarex 400D, which debuted at the international plastics fair in November in Japan. It has a range of design revisions, including a newly developed mold clamping mechanism that eliminates the need for a tie-bar unit and avoids deflection that can result in a mismatch of the top surfaces of the platens. Bottle takeout has been shifted from the side of the machine to the back, reducing the width of the machine by 35 percent and allowing for installation of conveyors inside the machine to carry both flash and products.  

Benefits Throughput. Given the example of producing 1-liter bottles with a cycle time of 15 seconds, the Innovarex 400D can produce 3,840 bottles per hour. The company said this is close to what a small rotary wheel blow molding machine can achieve, but with a much lower cost for molds and maintenance. The fully electric machine can provide energy savings from 40 percent to 60 percent compared to hydraulic machines with similar production capacity. 

Tahara Machinery Ltd., Chiba, Japan, 81-476-21-1991, www.tahara-mc.com 

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