At ‘new’ molder, 35 tons of plastic each day for closure molding

What began as a small unit within a leading closure moldmaker, which needed a service provider for sampling and pilot-run production, has grown into a leading injection molder of closures for the carton packaging industry—think Tetra Pak—and for PET bottles.

The molder, Austria's Injectoplast, was formed 25 years ago to be the mold testing unit of KTW (Waidhofen at the Thaya, Austria), one of the world's leading manufacturers of plastic closure molds. Next month at the Brau Beviale beverage packaging exhibition (Nov. 10-12) in Nuremberg, Germany, the injection molder, now "all grown up" and counting more than 40 injection molding systems in its stable, will show how it is putting more emphasis on its own marketing efforts.

MPW visited KTW about a decade ago and saw the even-then substantial molding facility that today is called Injectoplast. At that time, KTW officials asked us to refrain from writing too much about it, as they did not want to anger customers. The molding then was done almost exclusively for a single large carton packaging company and so did not affect our readers, so we agreed to stay quiet.

But from 2009, the molder has a new production area (see photo), to house those 40+ molding machines, mainly in the 250 - 420 tonnes' clamping force range. Daily, the machines form 12 to 14 million closures for PET and glass bottles, as well as carton packages, in addition to a range of baby products, totaling to about 4.5 billion molded parts per year. This represents an annual consumption of 12,000 tons of PE and PP, or about 35 tons per day. Camera systems at the molding cells help control finished part quality. Customized printing is also offered, as is storage capacity for 3450 pallets.

The processor not only has increased its marketing efforts but also has a new closure design to tout. A concrete example is screw caps, with foil seals of containers, which can be simultaneously removed (foil seal plus closure) when the cap is unscrewed. Another example is a closure system with integrated additive container, which was developed in cooperation with KTW. When opened, the contained additive (liquid or powder) is released and dosed to the underlying liquid. As a result, color effects or chemical reactions can be initiated.