Nov. 28, 2024
When you work in the blow molding industry for long enough, you realize that this molding method has many advantages. It can produce a large volume of hollow plastic parts at a relatively low cost. However, this molding process isn't without its issues. You can sometimes experience leakage, rocker bottoms, surface wall defects, and uneven wall thickness, among other problems.
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By learning more about the blow molding process, understanding how this process molds thermoplastic materials, and the common issues and resolutions, your molding process can be more efficient. Another way to keep your molding process efficient is by using the right products for your molding equipment and raw materials. Mold sealers, releases, and cleaners are all necessary steps in blow molding. Not sure which products are right for you? Talk to one of our experts today!
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The plastic blow molding process is like the glass-blowing process. The blow molding cycle begins by heating a plastic tube, then filling it with air, called the parison. A mold is then clamped around the tube to trap the plastic as the air continues to fill the parison to form the shape of the mold. It's ideal for molding a high-volume production of hollow objects and creates uniformly thin-walled objects at a relatively low cost.
It's sometimes preferred over the popular injection molding process because the blow molding station typically costs less than the injection molded machinery and can create shapes that injection molding cannot.
Additionally, there are three types of blow molding processes:
Blow molding is used to create hollow objects. Some examples of blow molding objects include containers, plastic bottles, drums, and tubing. A popular blow-molded item is a Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE) bottle. These bottles are semi-rigid plastics with durable, scratch- and shatter-resistance for products like spice jars, vitamin bottles, water bottles, and energy shot bottles.
Another popular blow molded product is High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) products. This plastic material is molded into shampoo pottles, motor oil, coolers, industrial drums, fuel tanks, and play structures. It's easy to color, chemically inert, and FDA-approved.
Now that you know how blow molding works to create the desired shape and some of its common products, it's time to look at some of the issues that can be experienced during the blow molding process and what causes them.
Leakage occurs in the blow molding process when the gap between the blow pin nozzle and the mold is too wide. It doesn't allow the blow pin to push enough material inside the mold, creating leaks. Leaks can also be caused by a tear in the product's wall, contaminated plastic resin, or poor welding of the molding plastic. To prevent leakage, be sure that your blow molding manufacturer must make the blow pin nozzle and the mold a perfect match.
Rocker bottoms occur when producing bottles in the blow molding process. All bottles have a feature on the bottom known as the push-up, where the center of the bottle curves inward at various degrees. This feature helps ensure plastic bottles, especially those for carbonated beverages, sit on the base's outer rim (feet). A rocker bottom occurs when the plastic products are too hot after molding. The plastic then protrudes outward instead of inward and causes the bottle to rock instead of standing straight.
Rocker bottom can also occur, though rarely, when the residual air pressure inside the bottle pushes the center of the bottom out. To prevent rocker bottom, ensure you allow for adequate exhaust and cooling time, your blow molding vent is clean, the melt temperature is not too hot, and the cycle time is not too fast.
Sometimes the defects on the surface wall of the molded product are barely noticeable, like tiny black spots. Other times, it's quite obvious: horizontal ring-like lines, vertical streaking lines, and bubbles. These defects can be caused by foreign matter, recycled resin, old resin stuck inside the extruder die head, excess moisture, the parison thickness controller moving the die too fast, or the parison wall coming in contact with the cold mold surface twice instead of once.
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Uneven wall thickness happens when one part of the preform begins to stretch first, making it harder for the rest of the product to stretch to the same thickness. This problem can occur because of an off-center gate, uneven heating and cooling, and small stretch ratios.
While all these issues have different origins, there are some things you can do overall to prevent them from happening. Some of those ways include:
The blow molding process is a great way to create hollow objects quickly. But without proper training, cycle parameters, and molding products, you could face defects that hurt your productivity. That's why we advocate for proper training and using our molding products.
We specifically design the products to work for the blow molding industry so that you can count on us for high-quality, custom products. Don't see something that will work for you or need more help improving your blow molding efficiency? Talk to one of our experts today!
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RESOURCES
Brandau, Ottmar. . Solve Four Common Problems in PET Stretch-Blow Molding. 06 26. Accessed January 30, . https://www.ptonline.com/articles/solving-four-common-problems-in-pet-stretch-blow-molding.
Cheway. . Blow Molding Troubleshooting Guide - 6 Problems. August 23. Accessed January 30, . https://www.chenway.com.tw/en/news-Blow_Molding_Troubleshooting_Guide_Top_6_Problems.html.
Microdyne Plastics Inc. n.d. Types of Plastic Blow and Injection Molding. Accessed January 30, . http://microdyneplastics.com//07/plastic-blow-injection-molding/.
The Cary Company. n.d. PET Bottles, Polyethylene Terephthalate Plastic Containers. Accessed January 30, . https://www.thecarycompany.com/containers/plastic/bottles/material/pet.
chemical drums, edible oil jerry cans, beverage, chemical or pharmaceutical bottles
, and more. Such popularity comes from being the most economical and highest production output forming process of plastic products that are not only durable, but very high quality. However, there is a chance of encountering some problems during this process, so when it comes to blow molding defects, it is extremely important that you learn to identify their origin and know how to handle each of them.is a popular process for the production of HDPE, and more. Such popularity comes from being the most economical and highest production output forming process of plastic products that are not only durable, but very high quality. However, there is a chance of encountering some problems during this process, so when it comes to blow molding defects, it is extremely important that you learn to identify their origin and know how to handle each of them.This blow molding troubleshooting guide will therefore introduce you to the Top 6 Common Defects and Problems of HDPE Extrusion Blow Molding, their possible causes, and solutions and recommendations which can help you obtain the best plastic products possible.Becoming familiarized with blow molding defects should always be a priority. This way, when production problems arise, coming up with an efficient solution will not take too long and overall plant productivity will be kept. Therefore, this leaves no doubt that having a proactive approach to blow molding troubleshooting is necessary to prevent delays and maintain a company's overall performance.Blow molding troubleshooting includes a variety of defects including the following:Leakage from HDPE bottles can be caused by many reasons, it can be due to tear in the bottle's wall, poor welding of the molten plastic in areas such as the bottom, side or top handles; it can also be caused by the melted resin being contaminated by dirt or impurities coming from recycled material, which can lead to the product's walls not being leakproof.For plastic products with a narrow neck (such as bottles, jerry cans and narrow mouth drums) the source of the leakage can be at the top surface of the neck and might be a little harder to detect. When designing the tooling for your product, the blow molding manufacturer must make sure the blow pin nozzle and the mold are the perfect match, depending on the parison wall thickness, the gap between these two should be narrow enough to let the blow pin push the material inside the mold so the plastic can fill the space between the mold and the blow pin, hence making the top of the neck flat (avoiding leakage when sealing the container). If this gap is too big, the material will not be pushed inwards to fill the space and the top surface of the neck will not be flat, thus, causing leakage.Why are rocker bottoms caused in bottles? Unstable or rocker bottoms of blow molded bottles is a problem usually caused by insufficient cooling of the blown bottle before removing it from its mold. If this is the case, try increasing the water flow of your cooling system. If there is still no result, you can also check the blow molding machine's cooling channels for any blockage and clean them. Sometimes, the problem can be caused by excessive thickness of the parison in the flasher area at the bottom, this causes the mold to not fully close at this point and the material not touching the mold completely as it is supposed to; thus, make sure the parison thickness at this area is adequate to allow the mold to fully close.Additionally, rocker bottoms can also be originated by poor air exhaust from the product's neck after the blowing cycle has finished and before the mold opens; as when the product is being formed, there is air being blown at a constant pressure pushing the Parison walls against the mold, so when this process finishes, the blow pin nozzle should slightly retract and allow the extra pressure out, otherwise this pressure will most likely expand the product at the bottom, hence resulting in an unstable bottle.Tearing of a container when deflashing the flasher material can happen and especially at the welding lines of the product (such as handle areas and the product's bottom), a very common cause of this issue is the mold close slow speed. What does this mean exactly? To catch the parison inside, the clamping unit must close the blow mold in two steps: 1st mold close (fast speed) and 2nd mold close (slow speed), the purpose of the 2nd mold close with slow speed is to push the material inwards the mold in order to form strong welding lines, and thus, avoid tearing at these areas when removing the scrap material. So, if your bottle, drum or jerry can is having this problem, try reducing the speed of the mold slow close.If after reducing the mold slow close speed the problem persists, then it might be that the parison thickness is too thin at the handle area of the jerry can or that the bottom flasher area is not enough to form a strong welding line, therefore, try increasing the thickness profile at these points in the parison so that when the mold closes, there is sufficient material to support the welding.If the tearing keeps happening after implementing these two solutions, then the problem might come from a poor cooling system design of the mold.From almost unnoticeable defects like tiny black spots, to larger ones like horizontal ring-like lines, vertical streaking lines, wall bubbles, and rough, rippled or 'orange peel' like surfaces, these can all affect your bottles and appear due to many different reasons.Black spots can be caused by foreign matter or old resin (which has already degraded) inside the extruder die head that contaminated the melt and resulted in different colored spots on your jerry can or bottle. Sometimes, the foreign matter or old resin might be stuck inside the die bushing and causes a distortion or vertical line in the extruded parison, thus marking streaking lines in the product; the solution to this is to find where in the die head the contamination is and clean it thoroughly.As for wall bubbles, these are caused by moisture or water particles condensed in the cold resin due to warm and high humidity climates. To avoid this, you can install a hopper dryer or try to keep the resin warm to evaporate the condensed water before it goes into the extruder hopper; also make sure cooling water flow in the extruder feed opening is not so high.When a horizontal ring-like line is formed around your drum or jerry can, it means the parison thickness difference between two consecutive points is too large, hence, the parison thickness controller will move the die or die mandrel too fast, resulting in a ring-like line showing on your product. To prevent this, gradually increase/decrease the thickness between the profile points, also keep the thickness of the first and last profile points the same or very close.A rough surface that seems rippled or like orange peel, is caused by the parison wall coming into contact with the cold mold surface two times intermittently instead of just once, therefore, prematurely solidifying the wall before it is blown and then stretching it a second time, which does not allow the parison wall to be smoothed out. This situation can happen especially with oval shaped jerry cans and bottles because the parison is too narrow, so the pre-blow is set high in order to expand it and get an oval shape-like parison before the cycle blow. To solve this, try using a bigger die mouth so you can reduce the pre-blow, the oval shape needed for the bottle will be formed with the cutting and sealing unit of the blow molding machine.An even wall thickness distribution of your jerry can, bottle or drum´s wall is very important to avoid excessive shrinkage of the product and overall bad quality. How does this happen? A product with an uneven radial thickness will have a thinner side that will be cooled down faster than the one with wider thickness, therefore requiring a longer cooling time otherwise the bottle will shrink too much.To solve this, try aligning the die mandrel(pin) and the die until the extruded parison looks straight. Because parisons with bigger diameters are easier to control than narrower ones, you can also try to increase the die mouth diameter and reduce the pre-blow of the parison as well.Trimming the flasher of the jerry cans and bottles should be done without too much effort from the operator (or if done with auto-deflashing unit , smoothly). If your product's deflashing is not ideal, it might be due to not enough clamping force in that flasher area in the mold. This happens frequently when a small mold is run in a blow molding machine that is for a higher volume range, for example, when a 1L or 5L jerry can mold is run in a machine made specially for 10L ' 25L jerry cans, which is not ideal nor recommended, as the clamping force will not be centered, and the mold will not properly cut around the flasher area. Therefore, the ideal solution is to not run a mold that is out of that specific blow molding machine.If you are running the molds in the corresponding machine and you have this problem, then it is due to not enough cooling of the flasher, which can be caused by a poor mold cooling system design or flow, or because the parison thickness is too big in the flasher area and the mold does not close completely, hence, not cooling down the flasher enough to trim it. To fix this, try reducing the thickness in the flasher areas of your bottle, drum or jerry can.Blow molding defects can hurt any blow molding plastic products manufacturer by largely affecting his production output rate and thus, the relationship with valuable clients. As a purchaser, acquiring these products would be simply unacceptable as they would not meet quality standards.It is therefore important to inspect bottles, jerry cans or drums thoroughly, and if any of the above-mentioned blow molding defects is encountered, to promptly identify where they come from and how to avoid or fix them. A few rejected pieces can be tolerated, but the key is to try to keep these numbers below 2% or to the absolute minimum.Purchasing high-quality machinery is the best prevention step you can take to avoid problems when purchasing an Extrusion Blow Molding Machine . An assured quality consistency in the produced containers is of top importance, as it is of no benefit to have a high output if you still have a high percentage of rejected jerry cans or bottles in your production line. In the case of our customers in Kenya, and many other parts of the world, our Jerry Can Making Machines have helped them produce high quality products which can be used for edible oil packaging and the storage of several other kinds of liquids. After purchasing the correct machines, they can smoothly reach their production output requirements, while also meeting the needs of their demanding market.Therefore, keep in mind to choose the best blow molding machine manufacturer that can provide you with all the incredible benefits that extrusion blow molding can bring to you! Assured quality consistency, high production output, efficient after-sales service, latest technology, and a competitive price.When purchasing a blow molding machine from Chen Way Machinery, you can rest assured that our high-performance machines will run with maximum effectiveness and meet all your requirements. Moreover, as a Chen Way customer, you will benefit of our lifetime after-sales and our rapid online customer service that will respond to you within 24 hours.You are just one step away from great plant productivity and profit with customized blow molding machines, all these through Chen Way Machinery, your lifetime friend and support!Send us your inquiry now!:
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