Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019 - 27

injection moulding

but there are limited opportunities to leverage that potential - this is largely due
to the types of parts the company manufactures. Instead, John O'Brien says the
company has been looking to minimise
wastage.
"We've installed hot runners for plastics and cold runners for rubber. That's
an investment of about £600,000 for
each material. This helps to reduce waste
across production, which also makes us a
little more competitive.
"If there's any PP, there are some limited areas where we can use up to 20%
regrind. That helps to create a closed
loop. But we're processing a lot of PA66
to produce parts used in engine bays and
a good percentage of that is glass filled.

We use data analysis to look at energy
usage, see where it's high to try and address that."
Seddon adds: "I think plastic is still
a young material. Perhaps we've been
somewhat wasteful with it and that requires a bigger push for sustainability,
but that should carry over to production,
reducing the energy outlay through optimised operations."
With that in mind, would be still possible for a smaller moulding operation
to get into volume manufacturing? "Anything's possible, if you've got deep enough
pockets," he replies. "But it's not just the
product, it's getting the whole support
network and then building in the sustainability credentials."

Paint cans produced by Berry Superfos
can contain up to 25% recycled material

advertisement promotion

Milliken presents
Automation
with rubber is
difficult, plastic
not so much
John O'Brien, Fibrax

That's not the best material for reuse, once it's chipped up, it loses its
modular strength."
Reusing material can save on
overall business costs. But there
are technical routes to achieving
the same goal, using Industry 4.0
data analysis to examine operational performance. As volume
manufacturers of their respective
products, both O'Brien and Seddon have a positive opinion.
O'Brien: "We think it's great!
We now default to using the newer machines because of the data
we get from them. That means
we don't run the older machines
so much, avoiding all the related downsides of operating older
equipment.
"We're coming to where 4.0
is across the board on all new
equipment and, as older machines are phased out, the site
will be connected. All businesses
should run on information and
data. There's no such thing as incorrect data and with 4.0 you can
understand exactly what's occurring in the machine."
Seddon is of the same mind, although from a different angle: "We
are a big energy user and we're
trying to minimise those costs. A
few years ago, energy was a much
smaller percentage of the operational outlay, but it's grown a lot.

At K 2019, Milliken to showcase blowmolded cosmetic bottles using MOL's
Tipplen R 665 XClear PP resin
Milliken Chemical is partnering at the upcoming K 2019 trade fair
with leading Hungarian resin producer MOL Group to demonstrate
the benefits of extrusion blow molding (EBM) cosmetic bottles using
polypropylene enhanced with Milliken's Millad® NX® 8000E clarifier.
Milliken, occupying Booth A27 in Hall 6 at the
Oct. 16-23 exhibition in Düsseldorf, is supplying
its EBM-specific grade of the Millad® NX® 8000E
additive for the blow molding of bottles by Italian
machinery maker Plastiblow srl on Booth B56 in
Hall 14.
MOL Group - on Booth A79 in Hall 8B at the
show - says the material in question is a random
copolymer PP it designed for the production of
extrusion blow molded bottles. MOL GROUP recommends processing temperatures of 185-230
°C for this resin, which goes by the name Tipplen
R 665 XClear.
With the introduction of Millad NX 8000E, transparency in extrusion blow molding is no longer
limited to PVC or PET. Milliken formulated the
additive specifically to provide a step change in
Standard vs. RCP with Millad NX 8000E
optical properties with standard Ziegler-Natta PP
EBM resins. Millad NX 8000E enables the substi- include clarity and gloss, a fresher look, and a
tution of more expensive, less functional, or diffi- low yellowness index), while also being less decult-to-process materials.
pendent on processing conditions such as mold
Millad NX 8000E-clarified blow molding PP de- surface finish and processing temperature. It also
livers substantially better bottle aesthetics (to offers tunable aesthetics.

Come visit Milliken at Booth A27 in Hall 6 to learn more about
this technology, or visit us online at k-2019.milliken.com.

september/october 2019 | WWW.PRW.COM

http://k-2019.milliken.com http://WWW.PRW.COM

Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019