Husky targets quicker, lighter closure process

17-Jun-2009 - Last updated on 18-Jun-2009 at 10:23 GMT

A beverage packaging manufacturer claims its latest development in high output closures can ensure more rapid processing without comprising quality or consistency.

Husky says its HyCAP system has been devised to provide more rapid and reliable processing of beverage packaging closures.

Mark Fitzpatrick, business manager for Husky’s closure division, told BeverageDaily.com that HyCap represented the latest development of its Hylectric machine platform through a company drive towards more efficient beverage pack operations.

“Husky is dedicated to helping manufacturers achieve significant weight reduction for both the preform and closure by converting to the newest lightweight standards,” he states. “In order to achieve this for the closure, as with the preform, we see that purpose-built manufacturing solutions are required to optimise economics and part quality.”

Speed targets

In terms of specific benefits for closure manufacture, the group claims the system, which will be displayed for the first time at the International Plastics Showcase (NPE 2009) next week, can process a lighter 0.98g 26mm water closure at less than three second cycles.

The second cycle refers to the time of a single injection moulding process, which at the showcase amounts to 72 parts.

“This is a significant improvement from the industry standard for this part, which is 3.5 to 4.0 second cycles on a 1.6g closure,” claims the manufacturer.

Fitzpatrick suggests that these potential time reductions can allow closure manufacturers to match or exceed existing compression moulding processes.

While designed to process different materials and closures on the machine, including polypropylene material, the group says the system is suited mainly to single piece, shorter High-density polyethylene (HDPE) closures like those of the PCO 1881 neck finish.

However, it is also possible to produce other types of beverage closures on this machine, such as those made from polypropylene.

Due to the purpose built nature of the HyCap system, Husky said that it does not have specific figures on start up costs for the machine, but that a number of changes made to the system’s interface have allowed for faster installation times.

“There are specific design features to integrate the Husky Altanium temperature controller, as well as auxiliaries into the workcell, to ensure connections are made quickly and easily,” states Fitzpatrick. “This translates into days and possibly weeks of quicker start-ups.”