Uhde Inventa-Fischer has developed a new process avoiding PET granulate

Plant manufacturer Uhde Inventa-Fischer has developed a new process enabling injection moulding of PET preforms direct from melt obtained from liquid-phase polycondensation of PET.

Its “melt-to-preform” process eliminates the need for PET granulate, normally produced with a solid state polycondensation (SSP) process in order to obtain the required crystallinity and viscosity for PET bottle applications. The company said that trials have been underway for over a year. It said the process could be developed into commercial plants with 100 to 300 tonnes a day capacity.

A spokesman at injection moulding machinery manufacturer Netstal confirmed to PRW.com that a modified Netstal moulding machine has been involved in the trials at Inventa-Fischer. The new melt-to-preform process follows the “direct-to-preform” process announced by plant manufacturer Zimmer in May and involving a modified Husky injection moulding machine (PRW 4 June).

While Zimmer said its process can cut costs by 10%, Netstal said it was too early to predict cost savings. The new melt-to-preform process will be presented at the Petnology conference in Shanghai in November by Uhde Inventa-Fischer managing director Kurt Hanimann.