PETForm is an efficient, high-performance, modular platform for manufacturing PET performs PETForm systems are available in the clamp force range from 175 to 320 t. KraussMaffei configures your system from PETForm modules so that you can run moulds from 24 to 96 cavities on the lowest and most economical tonnage machines. The perfect balance between machine performance and low preform unit costs pays off through increased system efficiency.
KraussMaffei’s vertical clamp is the basis for production cells that are highly productive and flexible, with an excellent track record for high availability.

Vertical clamp – high productivity, high machine availability

The vertical clamp is the most immediately noticeable feature of PETForm systems. Designing it, our engineers worked on the ‘keep-it-simple’ principle. With a vertical clamp, preforms drop in freefall from the mould cavities into a lightweight, contoured gripper and are then immediately transferred into a separate post-mould cooling station. The benefits of the vertical clamp range from more efficient stripping to higher system availability.

Short dry cycle times

A vertical system uses gravity to strip preforms. This has made gripper engineering simpler. There is no need for complicated demoulding mechanisms. Preforms can be demoulded earlier, because there’s no risk of damaging them. Because of its light weight, only a relatively small motor is needed to move the gripper rapidly into and out of the mould. This means faster stripping and shorter cycles.

Quick and easy mould changing

The vertical clamp makes for fast and easy mould changing. Moulds can be raised by hand with the aid of lifting rails and pushed out of the clamp area – by one person – with no risk of damaging the tiebars. Two people can carry out a complete mould change within three hours. This increases productive uptime for the machine.

Long mould service life

The vertical clamp also guarantees outstanding platen parallelism. The moving platen, guided by the tiebars, ensures precise, tiltfree closing and opening movements, even with heavy, multiplecavity moulds. This protects the critical thread and cone areas and minimizes wear on the mould. Moulds used in PETForm systems are capable of running over 15,000,000 cycles without the shaping components needing refurbishing.

Uniform temperature spread in the mould

Temperature spread in vertical hotrunner moulds is inherently uniform, because the heat dissipates evenly upwards. Chimney effects, typical of moulds in horizontal clamps, do not occur. This is why PETForm moulds can operate without a separate needle valve control for each cavity; these moulds can simply use temperature control zones – with the same high precision as systems with needle valve control.

Post-mould cooling – effective cooling and short cycle times for all types of preform

Preforms are cooled in a separate 4-stage post-mould cooling station engineered by KraussMaffei. The preforms are held in individual, contoured tubes in the cooling plates and cooled by water at 7 °C. The cooling station’s modular design combined with fast stripping by the highspeed handling system makes it possible to produce perfect performs with very short cycle times.

Highly dynamic with excellent cooling performance

The cooling station’s performance means that 85% of the required cooling time can be implemented outside the mould. In other words, the mould is available faster for the next injection cycle and the whole processing window becomes wider. At the same time, preform quality remains consistently high. The complete post-mould handling system, including the gripper and cooling station, are engineered as compact units with a small footprint. All traverses are short and direct. Servo drives on all axes and rugged mechanical systems are typical of KraussMaffei quality and ensure that the whole system is highly dynamic.

Efficient cooling for any type of preform

The straightforward stripping process and easyswap cooling plates mean that widely differing preform designs can be produced efficiently on the same machine. This includes special shapes such as wide-neck or pharmaceutical preforms. All that has to be done for a new preform shape is to swap the gripper and the cooling plates. No time-consuming modifications to the cooling unit are required. For very thick-walled preforms, KraussMaffei offer the option of an additional neck cooling system in the mould or incorporated in the post-mould cooling unit.

Electric injection units and special screws – high output plus low power consumption

Melt quality is a decisive factor in the quality of PET preforms. The hybrid injection units used in PETForm machines systems deliver consistently high melt quality and very high throughput, combined with lower power consumption (measured as kW/kg/h).

Direct drives for precision and energy efficiency An electric, direct-drive plasticizing unit guarantees a high-precision plastification process. A spur gear transmits the rotary motion directly without frictional losses. Precise movements mean high repeatability and shot weights that are precise within very close tolerances. Water cooling ensures that the gear operates effectively even under full load. Efficiency gains make it feasible to use smaller motors for a lower connected load and lower power consumption.

High-performance screws for a perfect melt

We drew on our many years of expertise in this field when we engineered the special high- performance (HPX) screws for our PETForm systems. The screw geometry has been designed to ensure that the resin is plasticized rapidly, so that pigments, AA scavengers and other blends are mixed in homogeneously without subjecting the melt to unnecessary shear forces. Colour changes can be made very quickly: for instance, from clear to deep blue in 5 shots – and even more important – deep blue to glass clear in only 10 – 15.

Low acetaldehyde values with HPX

Our HPX high-performance screws rotate more slowly than conventional PET screws for the same throughput. The result is very gentle processing and low acetaldehyde (AA) concentrations – even when throughput is high.PETForm is an efficient, high-performance, modular platform for manufacturing PET preforms. The vertical clamp plus an electric drive for the plasticizing unit make KraussMaffei PETForm production cells highly productive and flexible, with an excellent track record for high availability. The proof is in the low unit cost of preforms made on our systems and documented mould life of over 15,000,000 cycles. This makes PETForm systems low-budget, high-performance production cells – a solution the beverage industry can rely on.