The company already has successfully reduced costs for a handful of North American brand owners who are self-manufacturing bottles by as much as a half a million dollars annually per plant. Its goal is to expand the initiative to other companies as well as countries.
Stretch blow-molding equipment requires a significant amount of energy – both compressed air and electrical – to produce bottles. Creating an effective and efficient process, as well as monitoring and maintaining optimal process settings, can result in significant energy cost reduction. These efforts will also help produce containers that meet all of the required quality standards.
“The key to creating a successful energy reduction program is to consider air delivery and air demand (blow molding equipment) requirements at the same time. In the past, companies have tended to focus on these as separate areas and not in concert with one another. Using a systems approach is the key to optimizing operational improvements,” said PTI vice president technical services Donald Miller.
In order to custom design an energy savings plan, PTI does a careful analysis of all bottle manufacturing stages via a multistep review. This includes bottle production (preform, bottle, relationship between the two and production platform); process purpose (package, quality, optimize process and line efficiency); machine conditions/capabilities (supply and quality of air); blowing cycle review; oven control setup and configuration; process development and package performance validation.
“In today’s environmentally-conscious environment, companies go out of their way to drive weight out of bottles and other packaging components, but they often overlook the significant amount of energy waste that occurs when running the equipment,” said Miller. “Depending on how inefficient energy usage is, this can be a goldmine of ‘found money’ for the company. If several plants are involved, the energy savings can be well over a million dollars annually.”
Source: Plastic Technologies
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