With an annual production of more than one billion parts, Envases CMF S.A., the largest packaging producer in Chile, sees itself as one of the leading domestic PET processors. A major milestone of the company’s success was its first-time investment in a cap production line featuring high-speed El-Exis SP injection moulding machines.As a shareholder of Chilean plastics processor Envases CMF S.A., the second-largest Chilean Coca-Cola bottler Coca-Cola Embonor S.A. anticipates predominantly innovative cap solutions. Hence, CMF decided to include lightweight plastic screw caps in their product portfolio.
The timeline for planning and completion of the production line for 28 mm lightweight caps for carbonated beverages with PCO 1881 had been highly ambitious. As systems integrators, the Canadian mould manufacturer StackTeck not only supplied both 96-cavity moulds, but was also responsible for planning the entire line, including machinery, ancillary equipment, test and cooling systems as well as in-line inspection, part transfer, internal and external part decoration and boxing systems. At the centre of the production line were two Sumitomo (SHI) Demag El-Exis SP injection moulding machines that are specially developed for cap production at maximum mould speeds. For the managers at Envases CMF S.A. and StackTeck, this decision was successful in every respect. "We were particularly impressed with how easily the machine integrated as part of the system. After millions of cycles our customer continues to be very happy with the performance and reliability", Simon Martin, Director Closure Systems at StackTeck points out.
