<b>IMM</b>'s Plant Tour: Selling systems, not molds

As a moldmaker, Gefit has built considerable expertise in multicavity tooling, particularly for PET preforms and closures. Molds are also made for other packaging applications, automotive, appliances, and more.

We wanted to take you to Gefit SpA because we had seen its innovative and efficient molds running in the trade show displays of several machine makers. As an example, we had seen a fast-cycling tool for two-component bottle caps that did not open or rotate between shots. So, our objective was to look at a good moldmaker. What we found in the rolling hills of Italy’s wine-rich Piemonte (Piedmont) region was a lot more than we expected. Moldmaking, though it is a key component of Gefit’s business, is but one of its highlights.

Looked at solely as a moldmaker, Gefit is a specialist in tooling for molding bottle and jar closures and PET bottle performs. It also makes tools for automotive parts, pumps and dispensers, medical devices, and agricultural equipment. The packaging tools are by far the major share of Gefit’s mold output, and as you would expect from a closure and preform specialist, Gefit produces mostly multicavity, hot runner, high-speed molds.

The company’s success is shown by the high number of repeat orders it receives, the fact that its molds are running at locations around the world, and its moldmaking revenue (about €3 million only five years ago), which was more than €15 million last year and still trending upward.

For preforms and closures, Gefit molds range from eight to 64 cavities. In other areas cavitation can be far greater, such as this 104x104 stack mold for spray nozzles. Gefit has adequate capacity for delivering multimold orders. VITAL STATS Gefit SpA, Alessandria and Fubine, Italy Square footage: 15,000 sq m (161,000 sq ft) Annual sales: €42 million ($48 million) in 2002 Markets served: Primarily packaging, closures, PET preforms and bottles, automotive, electronics No. of employees: 270, 70 in Plastics Div., 200 in Automation Div. Moldmaking technology: High-cavitation, hot runner, fast cycling tools; wire and sink EDM, HSMC, CNC lathes, grinders Other services: Internal design—33 designers, including separate R&D group Quality: ISO 9001

System Expertise Begets Growth in Molds

Considering difficulties in the moldmaking business these days, such growth is worth a second look, especially considering, as we discovered, that Gefit does not sell molds in the traditional manner. When Gefit specialists like sales engineer Mauro Martinengo talk about what the company does, the conversation is all about end products—the client’s end products, not Gefit’s.

Take closures, for example: In speaking with a company bottling mineral water, juices, energy drinks, yogurt, or carbonated soft drinks, Gefit shows a brochure that at first looks like it is selling closures. The brochure shows a comprehensive line of closure designs for blowmolded bottles and jars. It also shows molds, but in a minor way. As Martinengo says, the bottler needs closures, so Gefit is there to provide a production system for the specific closures needed, tailored to the client’s real needs, including automated handling.

Gefit learned from its clients that they prefer collaborators to suppliers. Moreover, they prefer integrated system-level collaborators so they can deal with fewer of them. Gefit not only gives them a single-source system, but it also guarantees performance and supports the system beyond what the client expects.

Gefit recently expanded its toolmaking area to allow more room for new machines such as these high-speed milling centers. Other technology includes wire and sink EDM and CNC grinding and turning systems. If Gefit’s toolmaking machine park, including these sink EDM systems, appears relatively new, it is because the company believes in regular investment to keep a productivity edge. Gefit’s investment in this Mitutoyo coordinate measuring machine is amortized over mold components, prototypes, and molded parts. Mold components are 100% CMM inspected, usually several times. Because the mold for Gefit’s Miwa 2000 two-component (usually PP and TPE) closure does not rotate between shots, it reduces capital investment along with cycle times. Gefit’s automated handling systems for PET preforms include horizontal and vertical manipulators, and some of the designs are patented by Gefit for more efficient part extraction and cooling. Integrated assembly systems from Gefit’s Automation Div. can be 100m long and include every type of robotics up to anthropomorphic multiaxis. This automation technology supports complete handling systems to support multicavity molds.

Full support at Gefit includes providing customers with new ideas. The company proactively designs new products or improvements to existing ones and then takes them to the client. A separate R&D organization dedicated to innovation has been established within the Plastics Div., which includes moldmaking and molding operations. The systems competence of the Plastics Div. is further enhanced by the capabilities of the Automation Div.

Located in Alessandria and less than 10 minutes from the Plastics Div. in Fubine, the Automation Div. produces complete assembly systems not only for plastic components but also for products such as automotive turbochargers and gearboxes, suspension systems, radiators, pumps, and refrigerator compressors. The extensive handling, assembly, and conveying expertise from the Automation Div. is fully available to Plastics Div. clients.

Moldmaking and Systems from the Start

Gefit began about 35 years ago and has been growing steadily. Turnover in 2002 was €42 million ($48 million) and it expects about the same for 2003. The Automation Div. employs 170 people in its Alessandria factory and 30 in the plant it opened in Hungary five years ago. The Plastics Div. has 70 employees.

Gefit’s business is emphatically global: About 70% comes from markets in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Being well positioned as a solutions provider to small and medium-sized enterprises, Gefit has found many opportunities in the emerging markets of Asia and Eastern Europe and now has offices in Moscow and Beijing, each with six people.

Technology that Works

While Gefit thrives as a system-level supplier, it does not neglect its core moldmaking technology. Its two-component nonrotating closure mold is for Gefit’s Miwa 2000 cap for soft drinks and other carbonated liquids. Well accepted in the market, there are now molds ranging from eight to 64 cavities producing 7600 to 28,000 caps/hr in PE or HDPE plus the TPE ring liner. The moving plates that enable two-component injection within the mold are brilliantly engineered, to be sure. However, the other beauty of this mold, says Martinengo, is that it needs neither a rotating mold half nor a rotating mold platen, both of which are costly items. Eliminating rotating elements also eliminates rotation time. These molds can cycle in 8 seconds or less.

Gefit’s well-studied and researched mold designs have helped bring cycle times for single-component closures to less than 3 seconds in just a few years. Yields of 1200 caps/cavity/hr are now the norm. IMM saw a 64-cavity Gefit closure mold running 3.4-second cycles on a BMB machine at the Plast fair in Milan last May. These days it is usually cooling time rather than mold technology that prevents cycle shortening. As Martinengo says, cycle time depends on the total production system, which is why Gefit is a system provider.

Using advanced mold design to cut cycles from 5 to 3 seconds can mean millions more closures in a year. Gefit also uses its design skills on the product side. Gefit’s L3P compact closure weighs 1.5g, compared to 1.7g for previous designs. If saving .2g seems small, multiply it by 20 million or 30 million caps. Suddenly we are talking big money. How big? This double benefit of cycle time and material savings has caused several large multinationals to switch to Gefit technology in their packaging operations.

Gefit has seen how the synergies between its Plastics and Automation Divs. can create excellent efficiencies in full-system production solutions, and Martinengo says the assembly and system-level knowledge is also an advantage in designing a more efficient mold. Although Gefit gladly works with clients who want only a mold, or only an assembly system, increasingly it sees that manufacturers want the total system from one source.

Preforms Lead to Bottles

Martinengo used the Italian word “ingloberemo” in describing Gefit’s approach to working with clients. The literal meaning is, “we include,” but the sense is of being inclusive, taking things in. When the company finds a client’s need, it takes it in and works on a solution. It never excludes anything simply because it’s not doing it at the time, which helps explain how the company has grown into being a system-level supplier for PET bottles.

Gefit has optimized its PET preform systems—meaning molds and manipulators—for a segment roughly in the middle of the PET container market. Most products going into PET bottles do not have the volume for 144-cavity preform systems, but they still need efficient high-quality production. Developing economies do not start production with high volumes, nor do new products like energy and yogurt drinks in developed markets. Gefit’s line of eight-, 16-, 24-, and 48-cavity molds, which yield 1000 to 14,000 preforms/hr for bottles from .125 to 10 liters, is a good fit. Gefit also makes blowmolding tools for the bottles made from preforms.

Besides building innovative molds, Gefit has developed several types of patented manipulators to remove preforms from the mold and cool them in stages. The Automation Div. makes high-performance handling systems for both preforms and bottles, plus conveyors to move them. The extensive market and production system knowledge Gefit has gained with these products supported the design and recent launch of the Gefblow 4002 blowmolding system. Yielding 5200 to 6000 bottles/hr, the system has a very compact footprint, a definite plus for medium-sized bottlers, and a competitive price.

Ever More Inclusive

Gefit pays a lot of attention to counseling and educating clients. For example, clients often are not fully aware of the relationships between number of cavities and machine size, floor space, handling equipment, and more. The cost of a 32-cavity mold is nowhere near double a 16-cavity version, but the former needs a 200-ton clamp, the latter only 100.

Gefit has learned to work closely with packaging companies on their projections to ensure the right capacity. This kind of close support does not end at installation. The company believes a system, particularly a mold, should run well for at least 10 years. Gefit makes the design as simple as possible, optimizes it for low maintenance, supervises the installation closely, and afterward sends experienced technicians to customers to catch mold or automation problems before they happen. That, notes Martinengo, benefits Gefit as much as it does the customer.

For its part, Gefit is always looking for new markets and prospects, be they product segments or geography. The company knows that production systems using high-cavitation molds are not easy to design, build, or operate. Technical expertise is essential, but the best teacher is experience acquired over time, which Gefit has. It has watched as customers bought low-priced molds and then welcomed them back when performance and reliability were not there. The innovations flowing from Gefit’s R&D organization provide entrance into companies that are not looking for a new supplier. Continued proactive innovation maintains a strong customer rapport. “Taking the initiative,” Martinengo says, “is not the same as taking a risk, but waiting to be called is very risky.”

Contact Information Gefit SpA, Fubine (AL), Italy Mauro Martinengo; +39 (0131) 792 840 mauro.martinengo@gefitmail.com www.gefit.com