At Hansa-Heemann in Trappenkamp near Hamburg, SIG Corpoplast performed the first upgrade of a BLOMAX 10 Series III to twelve blowing stations to increase capacity by about 30%.

01 May 2005

With its four locations, Hansa-Heemann is one of the leading German suppliers of mineral waters and soft drinks. At the Trappenkamp plant, the group have in operation already two stretch blow molders from SIG Corpoplast – a BLOMAX 16 Series II and a BLOMAX 10 Series III which were used to produce 0.5 l bottles for a bottling line operating at 38,000 bph. In addition, the BLOMAX 16 also produced 1.0 and 1.5 liter bottles. As sales of these products have increased dramatically, the management decided to install an additional PET line. During the investment considerations, SIG Corpoplast came up with a highly interesting proposal: to expand the existing and hardly used BLOMAX 10 from ten to twelve blowing stations and to make additional upgrades and modifications so as to increase production per station from 1,500 to 1,630 bph. As a result, output would rise from 15,000 to 19,560 PET bottles per hour – without having to buy an additional machine and find room for its installation. The opportunity to increase capacity through such an upgrade is a direct consequence of the modular design of the BLOMAX Series III machines. Since the BLOMAX 10 and 12 utilize a common platform with a basically identical blowing wheel (as do the BLOMAX 4, 6 and 8, the BLOMAX 14 and 16 and the BLOMAX 18 and 20), the extension by two further stations is technically quite simple. "The machine must be rewired and the hoses must be reconnected but you do not have to rebuild the entire machine", explained project manager Oliver Schneider from SIG Corpoplast Service. The conversion began in mid-November 2004 and proceeded speedily so that the machine could be started up again as planned on December 8. "It was plain sailing", says Christian Schulte, Hansa-Heemann plant manager in Trappenkamp. "Thanks to the significant increase in capacity, we were even able to recover the loss of production within a very short time." Also in terms of costs, this was a very attractive solution. Compared to the purchase of a new machine, the investment in such an upgrade is significantly lower. For SIG Corpoplast and the engineers, this was a pilot project and Hansa-Heemann was the first customer where such an upgrade was performed on a BLOMAX. SIG Corpoplast is convinced that further conversions of this type will follow. The modular design of the BLOMAX machine, the easy and speedy implementation and the relatively low costs make this an attractive alternative for a larger group of customers