Fourth BLOMAX 24 Series III PET bottle blow moulding
machine for US converter
With a total production of about 4,500 million
bottles per year, Western Container Corporation (WCC), headquartered in Midland,
Texas, is one of the biggest converters for Coca-Cola in the United States.
Three additional BLOMAX 24 Series III will now expand WCC's capacities even
further.
The Coca-Cola bottle producer Western Container
Corporation recently ordered three further BLOMAX 24 Series III for its Big
Spring plant in Texas, which will increase its production capacity on BLOMAX
machines to 180 cavities. Very satisfied with the first Corpoplast machine
bought in 1998 - especially because of the lower cost of production of the
bottles - Western Container had already placed several subsequent orders, among
others for a high-performance machine for smaller bottles (BLOMAX 16 D) and a
BLOMAX 20 Series III.
At the K'2004, the Texan converter then bought
one of the first BLOMAX 24 Series III, which was also the 1000th BLOMAX machine
to be sold. The SIG Corpoplast service engineers boosted the output of this
machine to 1,800 bph per station for a 20 oz (= 591 ml) bottle and Western
Container has now ordered three additional BLOMAX 24 Series III with this
performance.
In addition to the superior energy efficiency and
the high machine availability, it was mainly the excellent service provided by
SIG Corpoplast that contributed to this latest decision by Western Container.
WCC is particularly enthusiastic about the excellent service from the local SIG
team in nearby Plano, Texas.
As an innovative company, Western Container likes
to tread new paths and therefore very much appreciates the openness of SIG
Corpoplast to new ideas and the professionalism of their technical
implementation. For example, SIG Corpoplast incorporated an online monitoring
system into the machines for WCC which permits monitoring the bottle quality
with camera measuring heads. All blow moulds have been equipped in such a way
that they can be used on the BLOMAX machines as well as on machines of other
manufacturers.
The business concept of a converter such as Big
Spring can only stand the test of time when the efficiency of the entire line is
optimised. With this in mind, the BLOMAX machines of the Series III are designed
to create optimum conditions for downstream equipment such as high-performance
palletisers to meet this objective.
---
About SIG:
SIG is a global supplier of packaging material, plant
systems and services for the beverage industry and a leader in selected markets.
The SIG Beverages Division is an internationally leading
manufacturer of plant systems for the production of plastic packaging as well as
complete solutions for the beverage industry.
SIG Corpoplast is an internationally leading supplier with
30 years of experience in the design, construction, sales and servicing of
machines and systems for producing PET bottles. The machine range comprises
stretch blow molding machines of the BLOMAX Series III with outputs of more than
40,000 PET bottles per hour and PLASMAX coating machines for enhanced barrier
properties, improved quality and longer shelf life of sensitive drinks in PET
bottles.
With its 6,671 employees, the SIG group generated sales of
about 1.7 billion euro in the fiscal year 2004.
