Husky Injection Molding Systems Is Not Done Pushing The Envelope of Thinner and Faster

Husky Injection Molding Systems is not done pushing the envelope of thinner and faster, when it comes to packaging and medical moulding. A Husky official also said the company would break ground on a new plant in China. At NPE2012 in Orlando in the US, Husky is rolling out the latest generation of its HyCAP beverage closure maker, cranking out a water bottle closure at a 2.2 second cycle using a 96-cavity closure mould made by KWT Group, the Austrian closure mould specialist that Husky bought last year. Jeff MacDonald, vice president of marketing, said Husky can squeeze out the cycle times because the company makes the moulding press, hot runners and – now in closures – the mould. The press running caps in Orlando represents a 45% improvement in productivity over the first HyCAP, at the last NPE in 2009, which ran a 72-cavity system running a similar application on a 2.4 second cycle. It’s a single-faced mould, not a stack mould. MacDonald said Husky said the market is moving away from stack moulds for closures. “We’re finding the average cavitation’s coming down a little bit, ” he said at Husky’s press conference April 2. And Husky will go one step further at Chinplas, coming up April 18-24 in Shanghai, debuting the HyCAP HPP (for high performance package), which the company claims will be the world’s fastest closure system. MacDonald said the press, which is already in China for the show, trims cycle time even more. The goal for Husky engineers was to reduce the mould open and close and make other improvements, to boost productivity and energy efficiency both by 20%, he said. At NPE2012, Husky also is running an all-electric H-MED AE press with UltraSync hot runner technology, Shotscope NX to cut energy use and boost productivity, and an Altanium temperature controller. The H-MED is moulding an IV breather cap. MacDonald said Husky will break ground on a plant in the Shanghai area. He declined to give many details, but said it would do some manufacturing of hot runners and injection moulding machines. Husky opened its Asian headquarters plant in Shanghai in 2004, and followed up with a hot-runner plant in Shenzhen the following year. Earlier this year, Husky opened a factory in Chennai, India, to do mould conversion and mould and hotrunner refurbishment for local preform makers. MacDonald said Husky typically has expanded globally to supply major beverage bottlers. In other news, MacDonald said Husky is coming out with its HyPEt HPP, after launching the HyPET AE at the K 2010 show in Germany. Husky has sold about 30 HyPET AE machines, he said. He dubbed the new model the HyPET 4.0 – using Silicon Valley terminology, since Husky wants to introduce presses with major advancements about every two years. It will enable Husky to reduce PET preforms even more, by using a better mould and hot runner system and improving machinery performance. Source: europeanplasticsnews.com