BLOWTEC
SPECIALISTS IN BLOW MOULDING PET CONTAINERS
BLOWTEC is a young, dynamic company in the Italian and international sector of machinery manufacturers for the plastic container industry; we design and construct machines to produce all types of PET containers and to meet the needs of our loyal customers.
The company was founded by PROMEC, with the collaboration of specialists in the industry, in an area internationally acclaimed for its know-how in the PET sector, for the purpose of expanding and completing the Promec group’s production range.
Thanks to BLOWTEC, Promec is currently one of the few manufacturers on an international scale that produces both blow moulders and filling machines for PET bottles – either stand-alone machines or combined – providing customers with the advantage of having a single contact for the entire line, leading to considerable economic savings and simplifying project management.
Right from the outset, Blowtec has worked with Promec, and with universities and research centres, to create simple, versatile machines, while reducing energy consumption and environmental impact.
Our company is part of Promec group, a leading Italian company with a worldwide reputation in design and supply of solutions for the rinsing and sterilization of all types of containers – also in the Ultraclean and aseptic sectors. as well as in the filling of small and large containers, up to 30 liters, and in the handling and supply of complete lines, even for high hourly production.
The third company in the group is Melegari Technology, the new brand of Melegari Manghi, a long-established manufacturer, of Italian and international standing, of machinery and systems for filling all types of liquid products.
Founded in the 1970s, the company was originally dedicated to the food market, and particularly to the tomato sector, but as the years passed, it gradually diversified into other products more closely related to the beverages sector, and today it competes with world leaders in this specific market.
Thanks to this important synergy, our group is equipped to offer the market a very broad and comprehensive range of products, from the manufacturing of the containers through to final packaging, so that the customer can rely on us for turnkey projects, with the advantage of having a single contact able to act as a partner, a consultant and a friend.
Blowtec combines experience and innovation thanks to the passion and expertise of a young, dynamic and constantly evolving group that has succeeded in creating simple, compact and versatile blow moulding machines bring customers’ ideas to life in a global context where the “design” of the container plays a fundamental role in marketing strategies.
Remaining constantly at your side and considering ourselves more a partner than a supplier, we have been tirelessly upgrading and innovating our know-how, also thanks to the many challenges you have set us.
The result of this approach, which has distinguished us from the very beginning, is a wide range of machines designed to produce containers for the filling and packaging of products in various industrial sectors such as water, soft drinks, beer, fruit juice, alcoholic beverages, oil and sauces, fresh and ESL milk, in the Ultraclean version with H2O2 preform sterilization, and much more besides.
When you choose a supplier, you don’t yet know whether you have found a partner. It is difficult to express in words what can only be measured in actions over the course of time, but there is undoubtedly a common benchmark for both of us: return on investment.
By acquiring as an asset, shared at all levels of the Company, the concept of servant leadership, Blowtec has constantly and productively applied the concepts of empathy, listening, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.
Blowtec is a company able to grasp and interpret the market’s needs and the opportunities they generate. By providing effective, reliable and modular responses to these needs, by encouraging and rewarding the initiative of individuals and, at the same time, by investing in the pooling of know-how within the Company, we have progressively consolidated a platform of solutions that motivates customers and partners to entrust us with ever greater areas of responsibility.
Our company has been cooperating for over 20 years now with Parma University’s Department of Engineering and other research centres, striving to meet increasingly demanding challenges, studying technologically advanced solutions and anticipating market needs and the requirements of our clientele. Our company has always distinguished itself for creativity and innovation, qualities that have enabled us to find increasingly better answers to our customers’ problems and to build more efficient, more high-performing machines, while reducing consumption and promoting modular and eco-sustainable solutions. Our leadership is the result of the courage we have always demonstrated, continually investing substantial sums in new technologies and new concepts, often only made possible thanks to the involvement of our customers in extremely innovative projects.
The collaboration between the companies of our group and the research departments has led to the design of an innovative integrated blowing-sterilizing-filling and capping machine (Syncroblock) in Ultraclean version for sensitive products such as milk, yogurt and fruit juices.
Sustainable development is becoming an increasingly important key concept. The path towards achieving sustainability today is a social as well as an environmental and economic challenge.
Although companies must, of necessity, continue to pursue their industrial dynamics, they mustn’t forget that the processes of change, the exploitation of resources, investment plans and technological guidelines must be increasingly more in harmony with the environment in which we live, already so spoiled.
It is with this in mind that, when we design and build our machines, we take all conceivable courses of action to develop and implement systems that are as eco-sustainable as possible, guaranteeing efficiency and reliability but with the lowest possible environmental impact.
We’re not in the business just for the sake…. of business! It is, first and foremost, our passion, and we do it with passion. For this reason, in Blowtec we attribute absolute importance not only to the what, but, first and foremost, to the how; we dedicate close attention daily to how we relate inside and outside of our Company, because we want to be appreciated for our value and for our values.
This is why our principles are non-negotiable with regard to:
- compliance with the Laws
- respect for others
- respect for the criteria of honesty
- total moral integrity
- zero discrimination as regards race, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation
- quality and safety in the workplace
- respect for the environment
Now more than ever before, the term partner has assumed a value that is not rhetorical but tangible: together we can do it. Together we can do it better. For real. Our values, our mission and the sharing by our employees of the corporate “vision” are the reference points that guarantee a constant drive towards the future; the building blocks of our code of conduct, thanks to which, on a broader scale, the quality, competitiveness and growth of the company are defined.
THE PHASES OF THE BLOW MOULDING PROCESS
3 HEATING THE PREFORMS
As they transit through the ovens, the preforms rotate constantly, thanks to a special belt, so that the heat will be evenly distributed over their entire surface. Special extractor fans provide a regular flow of hot air, thereby preventing the sides of the preforms from being subject to excessive temperatures (crystallization).
Preform heating is carried out by 2 or more ovens, according to machine size and preform.
Each row of lamps is regulated independently. At the output end of the heating station there is a pyrometer to check on preforms temperature.
4 PREFORM PITCH – PRESS PITCH ADJUSTMENT UNIT
The preforms are unloaded from the chain conveyor and transferred by a robotic arm to the press; the arm adjusts the pitch of the preforms to that of the press.
6 STRETCH-BLOWING UNIT
Axial stretching takes place by means of axes controlled by servomotors. Stretching speed can be set from the keyboard. Blowing valves are designed and manufactured in-house: they ensure quick high-pressure air flushing, an innovative reversible system (from NO to NC), excellent repeatability and accuracy.
The air outlet is filtered and muffled.
The machine’s air recovery system enables to recover and recycle a portion of the air of the high-pressure blowing circuit and to use it in the pre-blowing circuit and in the machine’s service air circuit.
7 UNLOADING
Unloading takes place when the container is fully formed, the blowing air has been discharged and the press is fully open, by means of a servomotor-driven linear transfer system synchronized with the opening movement of the press.
8 OPERATOR/MACHINE INTERACTION
The machine has a dedicated software on Siemens S7 PLC that ensures excellent operator/machine interaction and a special touch screen that supervises all the machine functions.
ELECTRA LINEAR BLOW MOULDER MACHINES
The blow moulder machine is the linear type, fully automatic; run by PLC Siemens and dedicated software which ensures excellent operator/machine interaction with a special touch screen with which to supervise all the machine functions. Format changeover is performed simply by replacing the customizations with an easy intuitive rapid operation that also includes the moulds. The machine automatically detects the adjustments through special self-learning systems. The machine is available from 1 to 10 cavities versions.
The advantages of the system are:
- Simplicity of construction
- Fully electric machine, with Brushless drive
- Low energy consumption (lower bottle unit cost), lower environmental impact
- Preforms go through innovative heating furnaces that are extremely compact
- Quick changeover of custom tools and moulds, with self-learning systems able to automatically recognise settings
- Preforms are moved by a chain – adapted to have an optimised pitch -, which runs on a compact frame
- Blowing valves are designed and manufactured in-house: they ensure quick high-pressure air flushing, excellent repeatability and accuracy
- Optimized blowing unit with air recovery function (over 30 % of air is recovered and recycled by the system)
- Compact blow moulder machine: electrical panels are inside the cabin so that components can be installed on a special frame/rack to minimise installation time at the Customer’s site
- Easy access to “sensitive” areas of the machine through secured openings
- Modular blow moulding presses
PRODUCTION RANGE
ELECTRA 1 S
Mould cavities: No. 1
Container capacity: 0,5 – 10 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 – 1500 b/h* | 5 lt – 1000 b/h* | 10 lt – 800 b/h*
ELECTRA 1
Mould cavities: No. 1
Container capacity: 0,5 – 20 lt
Maximum production: 5 – 1000 b/h* | 20 lt – 500 b/h*
ELECTRA 1 L
Mould cavities: No. 1
Container capacity: 10 – 30 lt
Maximum production: 10 lt – 800 b/h* | 30 lt – 300 b/h*
ELECTRA 2 S
Mould cavities: No. 2
Container capacity: 0,5 – 5 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 – 3200 b/h* | 5 lt – 2400 b/h*
ELECTRA 2 M
Mould cavities: No. 2
Container capacity: 0,5 – 12 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 lt – 3000 b/h* | 5 lt – 2300 b/h* | 12 lt – 1600 b/h*
ELECTRA 2 L
Mould cavities: No. 2
Container capacity: 5 – 20 lt
Maximum production: 5 lt – 2000 b/h* | 10 lt – 1800 b/h* | 20 lt – 1000 b/h*
ELECTRA 4
Mould cavities: No. 4
Container capacity: 0,5 – 3 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 lt – 6400 b/h* | 1,5 lt – 6000 b/h* | 3 lt – 5000 b/h*
ELECTRA 7
Mould cavities: No. 7
Container capacity: 0,5 – 2 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 lt – 9100 b/h* | 1,5 lt – 8800 b/h* | 2 lt – 8500 b/h*
ELECTRA 9
Mould cavities: No. 9
Container capacity: 0,5 – 1,5 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 – 12000 b/h* | 1,5 lt – 10800 b/h*
ELECTRA 10
Mould cavities: No. 10
Container capacity: 0,5 lt
Maximum production: 0,5 lt – 14000 b/h*
*Depends on bottle design and preform characteristics
VULTRACLEAN VERSION
This special configuration enables to blow sterile containers suitable for filling sensitive products, such as fresh milk and derivatives, ESL milk, fruit juices. To obtain sterile containers, the preforms are sterilized with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2); with this system it is possible to blow square, rectangular or in any case non-cylindrical, sterile containers, even with the handle, for filling in an Ultraclean environment.
PREFORMS STERILIZING SYSTEM
Preform sterilization is a process that allows to sterilize containers of all shapes and sizes, because the preforms, being cylindrical, therefore easy to sterilize.
Sterilization takes place through the use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with a concentration of 35%.
Hydrogen peroxide is injected through a special “nebulizing” nozzle, in order to completely cover the inner wall of the preform with a thin film, significantly reducing the amount required for each container (0.1 ÷ 0.3 ml). The nozzle is installed on the preform inlet star in the machine.
The injection times of the various cycles are totally controlled with an electronic system; the nozzle is fed by two solenoid valves (one for compressed air and the other for peroxide) operated by the machine’s PLC. This ensures maximum flexibility of the whole system and consumption optimization.
The preforms pass through the ovens, where they are heated allowing the evaporation of hydrogen peroxide and, consequently, the sterilization of the preforms themselves.
The sterilized preforms are then blown into the moulds obtaining sterile containers.
To ensure complete cleaning and decontamination of the containers, the machine is equipped with a laminar flow cabin of filtered air with HEPA filters; in this way, the area where sterilization takes place is kept under slight overpressure, allowing the air to flow outwards and, therefore, avoiding possible sources of pollution. The containers reach a high level of decontamination (log 4 or higher) and reach the filling stage in the required hygienic and sterile conditions.
