PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
In some countries of the world where the liquor is exported, it has been asked to have a mono-material closure to allow its recycling and not its destruction.
The current product consists of a pre-threaded polypropylene capsule and an ABS overcap.
We have chosen to develop a project where all the details are in a single material.
The overcap must be produced in four formats with the same shape but of different dimensions, this will involve the construction of eight molds.
The overcap, in addition to being printed and assembled, must be able to be decorated both on the top and on the four sides of the walls with a gold foil hot foil process.
There is no similar single-material closure solution on the market.
CONTENTS OF R&D ACTIVITIES
The complete capsule must surely have the same shape and the same functioning as the one currently in use on the market but in mono material.
The project foresees that all components are produced in PP
The project includes: two molds for the capsule, eight molds for the two components that form the overcap in various sizes, two hot foil printing machines, two ultrasonic welders, six presses on which to mount the molds.
The four presses on which the molds that make up the overcap will be mounted must be equipped with two-axis robots for picking up and assembling the overcapsule.
The two pre-threaded capsule molding machines print and the product is immediately packaged.
On the other hand, as regards the overcap, the lines must work synchronized with each other in all phases, therefore buffering stations must be provided between one process and the next.
The two-axis robots will have to take the pieces from the molds and place them on a belt that will take the pieces to a first buffer warehouse, then a pneumatic manipulator will perform a pre-assembly of the two parts that make up the overcap, this must have a speed of one equal to or greater than the molding one, then the pre-assembled pieces will be conveyed to the ultrasonic welding machines.
The two surfaces of the pieces that make up the overcapsule and that will come into contact for ultrasonic welding require a pre-determined shape of the profile and with a specific geometry according to the dimensions of the pieces to be welded and the material used, this phase must be developed and designed in collaboration with the supplier of the welding machines.
After the welding, a new accumulation lung is foreseen that precedes the hot foil printing, the machines that will do this process must be designed to make the five prints in line, that is, a first print will make two side faces and the top using three cliscè of printing, continuing on the machine table the piece will rotate 90 ° and then the other two side walls will be printed, after this phase there will be a control station with a vision system to check 100% the quality of the product, last phase , boxed packaging by means of a pneumatic manipulator that will have to position the pieces in an orderly manner and between one layer and the other a protective sheet must be interposed to avoid surface abrasions of the pieces.