Blow Molding: Upgraded Wheel Machine with Servo-Driven Clamps

A new version of the Series III rotary blow molder from Wilmington Machinery has servo-driven clamps that provide extreme consistency of clamp opening/closing from station to station, resulting in high bottle uniformity. Like the preceding Series III, the new Series IIIB comes with nine to 36 stations (clamps) in four sizes from 2.5 to 10 tons. It rotates at up to 10 rpm for production of 45 to 720 bottles/min. One or more extruders and a variety of die heads—single- or dual-parison—can be supplied for bottles of one to seven layers.

 Besides the servo-driven clamps, new features include more robust, modular clamp stations with air and water services pre-plumbed directly to the clamp platens, which are said to significantly reduce maintenance and setup times. Dual-cam clamp action reportedly reduces wear and allows for independent open/close control of eah mold half. This feature is especially useful in ejection and placement of bottles at the discharge point of the wheel.

 The new wheel retains the “radial positioning” or variable-pitch feature of the earlier series. A change is the unique “spoke” mounting arrangement of the clamps to the axle, creating a simpler, more robust arrangement that is much faster to set up. It also retains dual water unions to the molds for improved coolant flow and reduced cycle times.