Speaking with Ben Bouckley in this video shot live at Pack Expo in Chicago last week, Adam Stowitts, technical manager, plastic technology, Krones USA, discussed the German giant’s plans for a heat set version of the machine to produce hot fill PET bottles in mid- to late 2013.
Since launching the machine on the eve of Brau Beviale last November – it currently caters for cold-fill products such as CSDs, water, anything high speed packed into PET – Stowitts adds that Krones has already sold 170 machines sold worldwide.
“Customer feedback has been very, very good. The output is great and the machine performance has been stellar,” he said.
‘We started from the ground up’
Stowitts said: “It’s a completely new blow-wheel module. We started from the ground up and asked ‘what are the problems that the previous generation, as well as the competition, are experiencing with existing blow-molding platforms.
“We took that and integrated it into a technical design that limited the number of mechanical interfaces – so we don’t have a lot of cam surfaces, we don’t have a lot of grease, a lot of metal on metal surfaces.
He added: “We did so in order to reduce the stress, the wear on the machine as it’s operating at an exceptionally high speed of 2250 bottles per station per hour.”