Kautex Maschinenbau presents KBB bottle machine at NPE 2018

An ongoing success story
“Ever since the first all-electric KBB60D was launched on the North America market three years ago, demand for this series has grown at a considerable rate,” says Bill Farrant, President of Kautex Machines Inc. Extremely short dry cycle times and low energy costs give the all-electric KBB series an edge in terms of saving resources and maximizing efficiency. In addition, quick-change systems enable by far the fastest product change-over in the extrusion blow molding machines segment.

Live demo of personal care application
Under the show slogan “Setting benchmarks for high production performance”, Kautex Maschinenbau will be presenting another KBB model at NPE 2018. The KBB40D machine for the production of 600-ml flat oval bottles for the personal care industry has already been ordered by Amcor, a customer who will also be represented at the Kautex stand in Orlando. The quick mold change features of the machine will also be demonstrated twice per day.

The bottles are produced on the double-station machine with ten cavities in the three-layer ReCo process, whereby color is only added in the outer layer of the bottle. The inner layer uses virgin material to minimize the migration of impurities into the filled product. The middle layer uses regrind or PCR, i.e. recycled plastic, to save both costs and resources, in line with the circular economy ideal. Leak testing of the bottles is performed inside the blow molding machine.

Quality control with feedback
A continuous weighing machine linked to the blow molding machine will also be shown. It allows deviations in product weight to be identified immediately and adjusted automatically in the machine. This step reduces the number of rejects and increases machine efficiency. Another benefit of automatic weight adjustment is a saving in the cost of resin used. Visitors to the NPE show will be able to view the CPK parameters on a large screen in real time during the production process.

Kautex service
In keeping with the “Industry 4.0” smart factory trend, Kautex will be presenting the second generation of its virtual machine at NPE. This practical training tool enables the exact simulation of realistic production processes. The system comprising a compact workstation unit, two monitors, a projector and a real control panel allows machines of the KBS, KBB and the KCC series to be depicted in real time. The company will also be presenting a simple and reliable remote diagnostics solution at NPE: the Kautex Remote Service. This is based on a built-in firewall, which allows a technician to begin detailed troubleshooting without having to travel to the machine location. In the ideal scenario, the fault can be cleared online after the instant analysis. If not, either the faulty part will be identified and a replacement part sent out for self-installation, or a technician call-out will be arranged. This ensures that Kautex machines are up-and-running again as soon as possible, thus minimizing the costs of downtime.

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