Objective
Industrial Needs and Issues The advent of the injecVon blow moulding process brought with it, the potential for much improved aesthetics within transparent, hollow polymer products, with many being re engineered to take advantage of the significant cost reduction possibilities the process offers. The further development of the process, has allowed our Company, AlppitukRu Oy, along with many of our colleagues amongst the 22,000 SME' plastic moulders and mould tool makers in Europe, to extend our range of hollow products, previously fabricated from a number of injection moulded components and now made as a single piece without a welded knit line. However, many more opportunities would exist if we could cost effectively decorate our mouldings. Despite the development and integration of in line printing equipment, there remains a real commercial need for a cheap, c automated and flexible decoration system, integrated directly into the injection blow mould process itself. This is particularly relevant where components are to be used, simultaneously, in both a functional and aesthetic context, such as the street lighting globes we produce. Where the product is used outdoors and weathering becomes an issue, the current, expensive methods of decorating, such as silk screen printing, foil blocking, shrink sleeve, and spray frosting, also limit product life, as they have to be placed on the external surface which is most prone to UV and rain water attack. Unfortunately, the relative simplicity of current production processes combined with the high labour input required to perform finishing and sub assembly operations, makes it attractive to lower skill and labour cost regions and despite the cost penalties associated with shipping large volume parts, European based manufacturers are suffering a steeply declining market share. Ironically, whilst the total EU market has increased to 4.9 Bn ECU p.a. 2,10, domestic moulders share of it has diminished from 85%, to a concerning 65% over the last 5 years. We have experienced this first hand, having lost European business at competing prices, from the Pacific Rim and especially former Eastern Bloc countries, at levels very close to the actual cost of manufacture for most EU moulders. In the search for a solution, we have contacted leading moulders and technology developers, across Europe, concentrating on the exponents of the already successful process of in mould labelling (IML). As a result, and in conjunction with some of the companies contacted, we have developed a novel process concept to apply IML t technology to the injection blow moulding process. Such a process could potentially result in seamless, void free, full colour, decorative and functional labels on the inside of injection blow mouldings, for aesthetic or directional reflector applications in the 24BnECU pa worldwide lighting market.13 In addition, we have identified further potential applications for decorated injection blow mouldings within the electrical & electronics markets, worth around 35MECU pa2 and the household goods markets, worth around 20MECU pa, which currently account for only 3.3% and 1.5%, respectively, of blow moulding sales in Europe.10 The Core Group of Proposers, led by ourselves, a supplier of blowing stations for the injection blow process, also includes a moulder, a mould toolmaker and an IML automation machinery supplier, hopes to use the results of our proposed work, to expand our markets in the manufacture of production equipment or supply of mouldings to the lighting industry.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering manufacturing engineering
- engineering and technology materials engineering colors
- social sciences sociology industrial relations automation
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
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Coordinator
8500 Lohja as
Finland
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